


Highway Stars

by PrincessLiamer



Category: South Park
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-20 00:08:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 34,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8229455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessLiamer/pseuds/PrincessLiamer
Summary: A south park Fallout fan fic





	1. Chapter 1

“God damn it, I can’t believe you would even think about selling the Highwayman!” Bebe yelled in my ear again. “That’s probably the stupidest idea I’ve heard you come up with!” She’d been raving on like this since we left the Capitol weeks ago. The drive had taken us only one, but once we got to Nuka World, the arguing began. We couldn’t afford to keep holding up here like we were. When Nuka World became a free trading hub, things got a lot more expensive. Trying to afford a place to sleep for seven people and a dog wasn’t easy. We’d usually have three people sleeping in the car while one kept watch. Couldn’t be too careful when you’ve got a working vehicle in the wastes. But the car was cramped as hell when we all piled in there. It had gotten a lot worse after we picked up Bebe and Nichole. That put us over our limits. And since we had been trying to settle down for a while, a car would get us the kind of caps we would need to make our way wherever we decided to settle. But some of us weren’t thrilled with the idea of setting out on foot, especially Bebe, as she was making clear.  
“Bebe, it’s gonna be ten thousand caps for the thing. You could buy a good house with that kinda cash.”  
“I don’t care! Ya think you’re tough shit cause you managed to get across the country, but you’re not gonna last a day traveling on foot.”  
“Bebe, I can guarantee, they’re ain’t nothin’ that could take down the Highway Stars,” Clyde told her, talking up our skills.  
“Yeah, that’s why we had to run outta the Capitol. Cause there’s nothin’ that can stop us. Especially not slavers.”  
Bebe referred to the slavers of Paradise Falls that had it out for us. “You mean those slavers that are after us cause o’ you, Bebe?” I reminded her.  
“You shut up about that!”  
“If it weren’t for you gettin’ up and captured one night, then there’d be no reason for us to run off like we did. I was fully prepared to settle in the Capital. We were the toughest bastards to make our way in there since the Brotherhood.”  
“Please. You think you coulda handled half the shit in the shit in the Capitol? Try showin’ up ten years earlier. The place was full o’ Super Mutants, Power armored freaks callin’ themselves the Enclave, crazy bastards claimin’ to be the government, gangs.”  
“We could take on any of those lowlifes making their way there. The Raiders were nothin’, that Talon whatever was nothin’. But there are a lot of Slavers in the Capitol. It’s shameful that slavery still has a place in the Capitol. But it’s there, in more force than anywhere else in this damn Wasteland.”  
“What about this place right here. It was full o’ slaves just a year ago.”  
“Yeah, then someone came along and returned it the free market hub it is now. Imagine how much better the Capitol would be if someone would just finish off that damn slave trade. You could maybe make some kind of progress. But it’s still in full force, and now we can’t even make our way around the place with everyone wanting the people who freed two dozen slaves dead. And so, we gotta run.”  
Me, Clyde, Bebe, and Jimmy were all here for this heated discussion. Tweek, Token and Nichole were searching for the best deal we could get on the car. Token had found the best offer so far, at 8000 caps. The second best was 6 thou and a dog, which Tweek had found and was pretty big on. I didn’t want to take up another mouth, but we were probably gonna end up sinking a thousand caps into a pack Brahmin, anyway. Since we got here, Token had picked up a variety of useful shit. There was a tourist vault built into the facility, where he had found a pair of fancy Pip boy’s, and managed to salvage them. I got one, which came in hand as a map, and Token the other. People treat you differently if they think you came out of a hole in the ground. Think you’re dumber to the ways of the world. In addition, he’d picked up a nice new assault rifle and a fair amount of ammo. For the moment, we had maybe four thousand caps to go on.  
“F-fella’s, we can’t keep having th-this argument. Nuka World is exp-p-pensive to stay at. We’ve sunk maybe a th-thousand caps into this month long visit. We need to move on, before we run out of m-m-money.” Kimmy pointed out. He was right. Things were cheap in the Capitol. That had fresh water, and good crops. But that was a rare case in the East. Food was expensive as hell here, so needed to move on. Plus, everyone was getting pretty sick of all the Nuka Cola.   
I put my foot down. “We’re sellin’ the car, and that’s final.”  
I was walking away when I heard Bebe say, “Yeah, that’s what you keep sayin’, but tell me that when you can actually cinch a deal, you useless asshole. What kind of a leader are ya, anyway?” It wasn’t my style to go around yelling at people. I had to keep up a cool exterior all the time, as to intimidate people. But Bebe really pissed me off. Not just in this instance. Ever since she showed up and started messing with Clyde’s head. And then she decided she actually liked Clyde after we saved her, and came trailing along, just to always be fighting me? I wanted to yell at her. She made me wanna scream like hell. Questioning my authority as the leader of this gang. “And besides, how could you even call yourselves the Highway Stars anymore after selling your car? What, are ya gonna settle down on some freeway? Like the freaks back in the Capitol you all make so much fun of?” And then, I didn’t want to scream. This suddenly was a point I hadn’t thought of. The Highway Stars without our car. Now I did feel like some kind of idiot.  
“Stay with the car. I’ll be back,” I told them, as I walked away. Ours was the only car in the lot. Well, actually, ours was one of three. The other two were completely wrecked, though. Total trash. A car was a symbol of power in the wastes. To have that kind of ability to move across the country was truly something. I remember finishing it, way back four years ago. To find a car with a good pair of tires on it was something in itself. Most tires would be rotted through, And a good engine block was one of the rarest commodities in the waste. For a car to come with both was unheard of. And you couldn’t find a battery with juice left in it nowadays. You’d have to make one, which wasn’t exactly hard, when you had someone like Token working with you.  
Walking into the actual ground of Nuka World was weird. I’d traveled all across the continent in the last three years, and had never seen a place like it. Well, while traveling through New Vegas, way back when it was just Me, Clyde and Token, we got caught up in a small town called Primm, where there was a wrecked bridge we couldn’t pass, and I remember seeing a big roller coaster running through the place, but From outside of Nuka World, you could see a big, towering Nuka bottle leaning up a against a mountain. Everything in the park was just as big and impressive. I walked into the town center, where Token was bartering with some of the locals. We have been bartering with people passing through about the car for two weeks now. Token is one of my oldest friends, and his skills are undeniable, and would qualify him as a renaissance man. He’d taken quite a couple beatings in his time with me, and had lost two fingers in a fight a long time ago, down to the first joint, the metacarpals, if Tweek had taught me right, but after he said, “I’ve still got my trigger finger, don’t I?” Nichole and Tweek were with him. Tweek wasn’t the best at bargaining, he was more of the team’s personal doc, if not a slight quack of one. I must have taken a dozen bullets in my time, and tweek’s been there for eleven for them, and he’s pulled me and everyone out of every troubled time. Before meeting him, he’d already walked through the shadow of the valley of death, living on the run from Caesar’s Legion, and he’s never exactly been the trusting type, but the moment I saw him, I needed him by my side. As for Nichole, she had her ways of persuasion. A femme fatale in many ways. She’s held her weight among a semi trained soldier and two boys out of New Reno, deadliest town in New California.  
I walked up to the three of them, and was greeted with a nervous but warm, “Craig! I’m glad you’re here,” from Tweek.  
I walked to his side and said, “Hey, Tweek,” Before turning to Token and asking, “How goes the bargaining?”  
“It isn’t going well,” Token said. “No one’s willing to give ten thousand caps.”  
“THat’s ridiculous! A car like that? You ain’t gonna find a car in higher quality. I haven’t seen another working car since we got to the east! Trying to put one together would take years. No one’s willing to go up?”  
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Token said, lifting his shoulders. I let out a sigh.  
I turned to the blonde at my left. “Tweek, could I get a sec to talk with you?”  
Tweek let out a confused, “Huh?”  
“Just real quick, if you wouldn’t mind?”  
“Uhh, y-yeah, sure, Craig,” He told me. I walked him away from Token and Nichole. I then took him out of the small central trading posts, and took him down the way further into Nuka World. “A-are you sure we should just go wandering around the park?” He asked nervously. Tweek was never one to go about on his own. Even with me by his side, he felt terribly anxious.  
“Don’t worry, I’m here, and there ain’t nothin’ that can get through me,” I told him, and slipped my hand around his to comfort him. This place used to be filled with raiders, but now that it was totally cleared out, it was way safer. There were a bunch of Super Mutants somewhere nearby, someone had said, but we hadn’t seen any. “I needed to talk to someone. And you understand me best, Tweek.” I looked down at him, he was looking away trying to suppress a smile. I was doing a much better job, fighting the urge while looking at Tweek. “I don’t think I wanna sell the car anymore.”  
“What?” He said with surprise. “I thought you were set on it? You’ve been fighting Bebe about it for weeks, now.”  
“I know.” I lowered my head in shame, “But she told me something I couldn’t really deny. Without a car, can we even really be the Highway Stars, anymore?”  
Tweek looked up in surprise. “C-Craig,” He started before turning away to think about it, “Craig, we’ll always bebe the Highway Stars. Wherever you go, people will learn why they should fear the name on our backs,” and he pointed his thumb to the symbol on the back of his leather jacket. On it was a big star, which had a strip of paved road going down from the top point of the star down into the two bottom points, and the name ‘Highway Stars’ written underneath. “People know the name from here to the San Fran.”  
“Eh, you’re right. But the car is an important symbol of who we are. It shows how unbound we are to any place. We’re free spirits. They probably tell tales of the kids who got a car working and rolled outta the biggest shithole in the NCR, and robbed and cheated their way across the country!” I had gotten myself excited. I was looking up at the blackening sky, thinking about all the things I’ve thought were great that I’ve done in my life, smiling. And then I wiped the smile off my face. “Or maybe they’ve totally forgotten about us.”  
Tweek was looking at me. He could see there was a sadness in my face. He asked me, “Do you ever miss it?”  
“What?”  
“Do you ever miss New California?”  
“What? Why would I ever want to go back there!?” Tweek looked up at me with concern at me. He had beautiful eyes of different coloured eyes. Holding his hand, he had a ring finger missing. Having spent the most time alone in the wastes, Tweek had teeth as bad as Jimmy. He and Jimmy both used dentures, but Token had made Tweek’s golden. “I mean, it’s been a long time since I’ve even thought about going back. I might think about it, but I can’t just go back. I stole a lot of shit from people, There was a warrant out for my and Clyde’s arrest. We could barely manage to stay safe in the Mojave.”  
“I don’t think there’s a chance the NCR could catch you. You’re tougher than a platoon of Legionaries! If… If you wanted to head back west, then I would be willing to bet you couldn’t be stopped.”  
I smiled without letting Tweek see. “Maybe. Maybe we could find some corner of the wastes where the people live free, still. How long do you think it would take the NCR to spread over all the Legion territory?”  
“That’s a lot of territory to cover. And I don’t think the NCR would be trying to cover that ground so soon after Breaking the Legion in half. I mean, they wouldn’t want to give them the chance to hold their territory, but trying to take over a fourth of America in ten years sounds more or less impossible.”  
“So, there’s probably somewhere out there for us.” I had grown wistful thinking about New California. It was a stupid fantasy I had let myself think up, going back west. But looking back down at Tweek, he didn’t think it was a stupid fantasy.  
“Craig, all you ever talk about is how you want to keep going. And maybe it looks hard right now, but maybe… If this car can’t keep you going, you should sell it. But that doesn’t mean you need to give up the road… Because no one can stop the Highway Stars from heading where they want.” He was looking up at the sky. The stars were coming out. It was a beautifully clear night.   
“The stars look beautiful,” I told him. “And so do you.” I leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. He came up and kissed me on the lips.   
It was another two days before we decided on a person to buy the car. We took the man offering 6,000 and a dog. We’d managed to bargain for 6450 caps instead. We’d taken hi for a test drive around the local area, outrunning a couple mirelurks around a dam. He liked what we were offering. We told him if he came back tomorrow and we’d have a full fuel cell for him, and he would give us an extra 500 caps. Then, the time came to say goodbye to the old girl. Token, Clyde and I were there when he showed up. He walked up with the dog by his side. Token greeted him, “Mr. Broflovski.” Looking at the man, he looked ridiculous. He was wearing a ushanka, which maybe I shouldn’t complain, considering everyone tells me my blue ribbon fedora looks ridiculous, but he was dressed like some kinda gangster, in some fancy dirty suit, buying a used car from a gang. “As you can see, the car’s ready for you,” and he gestured at the vehicle behind him.  
A thought randomly rushed into my brain. Not too late to pop some lead in this guy, take the money and run. But I quickly dismissed it. Just looking at this guy, I found it hard not to want to kill him, but the dog would probably attack me if I did. And besides, we’d already put a lot of work into this, so it would seem like a huge waste of a night if I killed him now. The asshole walked over to the vehicle and said, “Excellent,” in a brief way. I don’t know, I just really did not like this guy. I can’t stop thinking about it now. With one word, he had made himself sound like a prissy asshole.   
He had a three friends with him when we all met, with maybe four pets among them, and they all seemed dislikeable in their own way. I remember after meeting them turning to Token and asking, “how did you feel about them?”  
Then, Token turned to me and said, “I didn’t like them.”  
“Jesus, I know, right?” and then I turned to Tweek and Nichole, and again asked, “You guys?”  
“No, not at all,” Nichole said.  
“I mean, I guess that that Broflovski and Marsh were ‘okay,’” Tweek said, emphasizing okay, “But those other two were just assholes.”  
“I mean, the girl, Wendy,” Nichole interjected, “She was alright. I wouldn’t want to have to spend my time out in the wastes with her, but I knew plenty of worse people in the Capitol Wasteland.”  
“Hmm,” I corroborated. “Well, I’m just glad this is going to be the only time we ever see them.”  
Broflovski walked up to the car and put a hand the hood. “The tanks full, now?”  
“Yep, splurged on fusion cells to fill the old bastard.”  
“Excellent. Well, here’s the 6,450 for the car and the 500 for the fuel.”  
“Thanks, I said and I made a reach for the bag it was all being kept in. I opened it to see it was filled to the top. I handed the bag to Token, who began to sift through it, making sure it was all caps, and we weren’t getting a head or a bomb in the mix. “And the dog?” I asked.  
“Right. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like the chance to say goodbye to her first.”  
“Course. I guess we’ll say goodbye to the car.” I watched as this Kyle Broflovski leaned down to say goodbye to his dog, and the three of us walked to the other side of the car. “Well, guess this is goodbye, car,” I told the car. I couldn’t tell if I was actually being serious right now saying goodbye to the car.  
I looked over to Clyde and he was weeping silently. He was smiling, too, as he asked, “Hey, guys, ‘member when we first got the idea to put together this car?”  
Token smiled, and reminisced about it with Clyde, “Oho, yeah. I remember. I’d known you guys for two years at that point. I’d found the old beat up thing at the foot of a pile in an old junkyard. And looking under the hood, I saw this thing had an intact engine block. Looking at it in front of all those other cars made it look like it was destined for us to find.”  
I couldn’t help but smile thinking about it. “It was our chance to get away, you called it. To run free, like we were meant to, Clyde said. I called it junk.”  
“Yeah, why’d you call it junk? That was kinda a dick thing to say?” Token said in a playful manner.   
“Cause, I didn’t think there was anything that could get us outta that god awful place. I thought We’d be stuck there our whole lives. And even when we started searchin’ for the parts, even when I took that mantle of leader, I didn’t believe it’d work until I heard the engine goin’.”  
I looked behind us. Everyone else was waiting for us. The second the deal was cinched, we were hopping on the rail to the commonwealth, where we’d start the execution of our plan to hit the road again better than ever. And everyone was standing at the bottom of the stairs, staring at the car that’d brought us all together. That’d brought us into the lives of one another and made at a different hour of need. And so, it was time to move on.  
Kyle Broflovski came around to us and said snootily, “Here she is,” and handed us the dog on a leash.   
Staring at the leashed dog with confusion, I told him, “Thanks,” and took it out of his hands putting the cars keys in his. I watched as he pulled a souvenir Nuka Cola keychain out of his pocket, and wondered what the hell is this guy. The three of us started walking away with her, and I asked Clyde, “Where did he get a leash? I’ve only ever seen people wearing one, why’d he put it on a dog?”  
“I know,” Clyde agreed, “I saw him comin’ out with that shit, and was like, woah. What’s this shit? What kind of weird shit is this guy into?”  
“I dunno, let’s just get out of here before he realizes somethin’s up with the car.” I turned to the dog and said, “C’mon, girl,” And she looked up at me and started jogging after. Everyone had started heading back up the steps towards the monorail car. We were running up after when I knew Broflovski had to have figured out something was up with the car. He had to be furiously turning the key trying to get it started. We all jumped onto the monorail, andI turned to look at our precious cargo. The car’s engine block. With this, we could easily suit up a new vehicle in months to a year. I turned to Jimmy in the engineer’s seat.  
“W-we ready?” He asked.  
I told him stonily, “Hit it.” And he turned, pushing down the lever which screeched the rail car forward.   
Clyde let out a “Woooh!” and I turned to see him doing a little victorious dance. He turned to Token and asked, “Hey, could you put a holotape in that pip boy ya picked up there, Token?”  
“Heh, yeah.”  
“Play me out, then!” And he handed him the one Holotape he took with him everywhere. I knew it well, and it was good. Cab Calloway’s Jumpin’ Jive. It was gonna be a pretty long trip to the Commonwealth, but not at all unexciting.


	2. Chapter 2

“Shit, fuck!” Clyde screamed out as he fell off the second floor of a building with Craig. The two of them landed below into the mud surrounding the unfinished construction project from the old world. Neither of them were hurt, but Clyde felt fear for his life, certainly, and wasn’t happy to have been pulled down by Craig. He was going to complain to him, but Craig reached over and covered Clyde’s mouth before he had the chance to complain, raising a gun to the side of his head and looking about. The two of them hadn't jumped off the building for the fun of it. They’d let about six super mutants looking for them up there. Three of the super mutants came over and looked down. They couldn’t see anything, due to Craig’s quick thinking. The two of them werer cloaked by stealth boys. Unless the super mutants could recognize the mud indents in the ground from the two of them having landed in it, then they would have a good thirty seconds to run before they got down to the first floor, and that would be enough. The mutants certainly weren’t going to chase after them. As Craig had gathered, just about everyone in Commonwealth’s central city area was extremely territorial. They weren’t going to go running after someone. This worked to the advantage of people going place to place throughout the city. Of course, the Gunners were a serious problem. Craig hadn’t seen a gang that big and that well organized in a long time. Talon men from the Capital seemed bad, but nothing unhandlable. In the six months Craig and his gang of Highway Stars had been squatting in the Commonwealth, a few things had happened.  
First, upon arrival, a group of Talon mercenaries were there waiting for them. The last ditch effort of the slavers of paradise falls to get back at them for the slaves they freed. They didn’t run into them, exactly. They had more so heard about their presence while arriving in Good Neighbour, while getting a drink at the local bar, the Brass Rail. Clyde warned them that the Highway Stars were in town, before getting warned by the barkie to keep their heads low if they didn’t want to lose them, and that some guys from a gang called Talon were looking for them.  
Second, Talon company mercenaries were found dead. Just about all of them. Quite bloodily, too. When Craig and the others saw their recognizable symbol, they were caught off guard. It was apparently the work of a group called the Gunners, the biggest group in the area. They had had a rough time lately, but were back up on their feet. They had encountered quite a problem, tough. In the commonwealth, there was a serious reformation of another group, the Gunners. They butted heads frequently with a group now as their greatest enemy: the Minutemen. The Minutemen reformation took place under the leadership of a vault dweller from this area that seemed to have left the area with some companions, heading for the Capital, leaving a man named Preston Garvey in charge.  
This brings us to number three. The Gunners were willing to let all of Craig’s gang into the Gunners as low ranking members and after proving their skills, would be able to move up the ranks. Craig denied them immediately. He told them they wouldn’t be in the Commonwealth for long, and had no interest in staying in the place. This angered the Gunners, a Corporal who had come to them with the offer named Jason in particular. It was Jason who had spent the next four months pestering the hell out of them. He was only able to send small troops at them at first, but after about two months, Jason came with a squadron of higher ranked soldiers, Privates, mostly first class, and a Sergeant. Almost all of them died in combat with the Highway Stars. Jason had managed to be one of the few to escape, and he returned to the gunners, telling them of his failure, for which they decided to try and kill Jason, and then kill the Highway Stars. After this, the safest place for the Highway Stars was inside the city, where they could try and hide from the gunners. They’d managed to hole up a certain parking structure formerly belonging to a group of feral ghouls.  
Finally, four. When the gang had arrived in the Commonwealth, they arrived with the intention of heading West. They had the one key thing that most people don’t have when it comes to traveling throughout the wastes. An engine block. Because anyone can get a car, but to get a working one is the hard part. Some people would kill for a working engine for a car. Everyone agreed to hide it as soon as possible to avoid someone getting their hands on it. But, pretty soon after arriving in the commonwealth, a group, other than Talon, came hunting after them: the people they’d sold the car to. They formed a small group of assholes dressed in fancy suits wearing bulletproof armour underneath, who think they’re clever or this, and with stupid hats. They made it to the Commonwealth about a day after Craig’s gang, with the intention o killing them for ripping them off and giving them a useless car. They first found each other about two weeks later, somewhere around the coast line. They were at a rickety looking bar that hadn’t been used for a long time, serving themselves some drinks and calming down for the evening. Tweek and Craig were having themselves some fun in back, and Token, Clyde and Nichole were getting drunk. Jimmy had been attacked by some small inner city gangs dog gone loose. Tweek had fixed him up pretty well, and Bebe was watching him as he slept to make sure he was alright.  
Token and Nichole were giggling at Clyde’s jokes, as Clyde called into the room where Bebe was watching Jimmy, and Bebe pokoed her head out of the door, and quietly yelled at Clyde, “WiIl you pipe it down, ya idiot!? Ya gonna wake up Jimmy!”  
Clyde waved it off, “Eh, whateva. He’s fiiiine. You’re no fun, anway. I’ll just keep it here, with my good friends, Token an’ Beb- wait… Nichole.” And he patted them both on the shoulder. Clyde was a bit of a lightweight, and it was funny for Token and Nichole to see him so drunk. In back, Craig and Tweek were finishing up a round of fun together, and lying together on the dirty mattress they’d found. Tweek held onto Craig’s arm wrapped around him, happy to be in his embrace, only to open his eyes to see the gang’s pet and new mascot, the three year old Rottweiler, Eliza. She was panting and staring Tweek in the eyes, smiling with her tongue out, before twisting her head to look at Tweek on the same plain.  
Tweek felt weirded out by this and shook Craig, “Craig. Craig?”  
Craig raised his head, placing it on top of Tweek’s shoulder and looking down at him, “What is it?”  
“How long has the dog been here?” Tweek asked.  
“Uhhh.” Craig took a second to think about it, “I think she was there the whole time.”  
“What!?” Tweek shouted out in surprise, “Oh, jesus, you mean she watched us…”  
“Tweek, it’s fine,” Craig tried comforting him by putting a hand around his waist. “Whenever dogs do it, do you think they care who’s watching? Dogs don’t really have modesty.”  
“Agh, that’s not a consolation!”  
“What, do ya think the dog’s gonna think less of us?” Craig moved his arm to scratch the dog’s head. “Please, ain’t nothin’ could stop Eliza from lovin’ you, ain’t that right, girl?” Eliza gave a bark of agreement, and put a paw onto the bed, leaning in to lick Tweek’s cheek. Tweek giggled and scratched her back, before she decided to climb up on the bad and sit on their feet.  
While the three of them were in the back, getting comfortable, expecting to be able to get a night’s rest, while Bebe took watch over night, In the front room of the bar, came in through the door several people. They stood there, in dirty suits, with rifles in hand, prepared to shoot the place up. There were five men and a woman, all of the with their weird hats. One of them was wearing more of a helmet, and another had a parka’s hood that went down under his white button up shirt. They also each had ties to match their head wear. Upon hearing them enter, Clyde Token and Nichole turned around to see them come in and line up in front of them. “Who a’ you?” Clyde asked.  
“Wait, I think I’ve seen them before,” Token tried remembering.  
“Really?” Clyde asked him, “Were they those guys from the Capital we robbed?”  
“No, no, they looked different. They didn’t dress up in suits.”  
“Maybe they’re the slavers.” Nichole said, and put a hand to the gun she had lying on the table.  
“Nah, I think I’d remember people with hats like those.”  
“Well, we gotta be fogettin’ someone.”  
“What the hell is wrong with the three of you idiots? It’s been less than a month, are you all so thick skulled?” The one in the green ushanka asked them in anger.  
“Oh, oh I’m sorry, friend, we’ve all just had a little bit too much for our own good for the night.”  
“Oh my god, what the fuck.” The man said, taking a hand from his gun to put a hand to his face briefly before moving it back to his gun.  
“Let me just kill ‘em!” suggested a rotund one who entered last and stood in front of the door, wearing a red winter cap and a striking red tie.   
“Shut up, fatass! We’re trying to keep a sense of class, which means we can’t go around killing people indiscriminately!” The first one said in response.  
“But this time it’s different! They’ve given me a reason to kill the, they stole my money.”  
“First off, none of the money was yours, it was, in fact, mostly mine! And all you ever want is to kill anyone you see. It’s a mistake to keep you around!”  
“Shut the fuck up, you damn dirty Jew!” He shouted, angrily pointing at his companion “You’ve been nothing but trouble since day one!”  
“You yell at me for holding an old world faith, but you suggested we all join the Children of Atom, saying it was ‘better than being a jew,’ and that ended with us earning enemies in Far Harbour, the Capital wasteland, and, as we’ve just recently found out, the Commonwealth, you dip fuck!”   
“Guys, stop it! You can’t always be fighting!” Interrupted the one in the blue cap, trying to settle them.  
“Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with these, guys?” Token asked Clyde, leaning over to ask him.  
“These guys gotta figure out what it means to have a sense o’ teamwork. Should we just tear ‘em up?” Clyde offered.  
“Nah, let’s see how this plays out. Wait till they try coming at us, and we can shoot them right out the door.”  
Craig walked out into the bar room, shirtless, very clearly displaying his six shot holstered to his waist, Tweek and Eliza behind him, Tweek with only Craig’s shirt and his underwear and a rifle in hand. And Eliza snarling. “What the hell is going on?” Craig asked, seeing the group in front of him.   
“Oh, don’t worry about it Craig, we got this under control,” Token told him.  
“Please, you think you could handle us?” The red hat mocked.  
“Oh, hey, aren’t you guys the assholes we sold the car to?”  
“Yeah, that's why we’re here. We want our money back.” The green hat explained.  
“Your name was Kyle wasn’t it? How the hell’d you find us?”  
“Doesn’t matter. You sold us a broken car, we want money back. We need it.” Said the kid with the orange hood.   
“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.” Craig told them.  
“Haven’t you guys ever been scammed before? It’s the kind of thing ya just gotta live with,” Clyde explained.  
“No. You see, I know that that car worked the day before. So obviously, you guys did something to the car to make it not work. Now, you’re going to fix it.” Kyle told them.  
Craig put a hand to his chin, stroking the long, unshaven hairs. “Mind introducing the whole group?”  
Kyle started pointing down the line from left to right from where Craig was looking. “Fatass over there is Cartman. Next to me is Stan, to my left is Wendy, to her left is Butters. NOw that we’re all acquainted, give us what you stole.”  
“He just told you you can’t have it back, weren’t you listenin’?” Nichole told him like he was an idiot.  
Cartman grew angry by her speaking up. “Ey, shut da hell up! You wanna die, bitch!?” He yelled at her, and pointed his gun in her face. Clyde Nichole and Token were all too drunk to take this situation seriously, up until Cartman had pointed a gun in her face. At that second they all grew angry by how she had been threatened. Nichole was the first to react, whipping her gun around and shooting him in the dick. Clyde and Token were reaching for their guns as Craig unholstered his, and fired off a shot, placed directly in Cartman’s jaw, blasting a hole through him. Token turned around, pointing an assault rifle at Cartman’s knee and letting off a single shot through it. Cartman was stumbling back, and Clyde turned around holding a 10 mm handgun. He fired, but it hit Cartman in the stomach, where they were all wearing body armour. Then, Tweek was last to react, aiming for his wrist with which he was holding the gun, and blew Cartman’s hand off with a single shot.  
By the time all of them had shot Cartman, Wendy, Kenny and Stan had gotten their guns pointed at someone, and Kyle was loading his. Butters dropped his gun and screamed out, “OH, FUCK!” Backing into the corner of the bar.  
Craig yelled out, “drop ‘em. You couldn’t get a shot out if you wanted.”  
Kyle looked to his left and to his. “What are you gonna do!?”  
“Your friend’s still alive. A stimpak or two and he’ll be better. Except for the hand. That’s gone for good.”  
Out of the side room, Bebe asked, “You guys need any help?”  
“Nah, we’re good,” Nichole called back. “Clyde, go in and stay with Bebe,” She told Clyde without taking her eyes off of Stan, who she pointed a handgun at..  
“What, why?” Clyde asked, turning to face her.   
“Clyde you’re too drunk for this. You’ve already taken your eyes off the enemy. You’re liable to get yourself killed. “Please, go.”  
Clyde let out a harumph and went into the other room. No one took their eyes away from someone on the other side of the room. Craig gave a command, “Nichole, I’ve got Stan over there. You take the orange hood one.”  
“Kay,” and she turned to face him.  
“Alright,” Craig said in the friendliest way he could with his sarcastic voice, “Now, you’re going to retreat for the evening. If you go into this shoot out, I can promise you, you won’t survive. None of you.”  
Cartman had passed out briefly due to the pain, and had just woken up. BLood was filling his mouth, which he coughed out a large amount of. It poured out of his cheek. The bullet Craig had shot through his mouth had just singed his tongue. He raised his arm to see it in tatters, and started making indisputable noises. He put his one hand to his searing crotch, and reached to Stan beside him for assistance. Craig told them once more, “I ain’t gonna offer, again. Leave, now, or else you’re all gonna die.”  
Kyle looked to Stan at his right, and Wendy to his left, and together, they silently decided to leave that day. Butters was the one to drag Cartman out of the door.   
Months later, CLyde and Craig were sneaking away from the Super Mutant’s fortified den, unsuccessful in finding anything helpful. To their cause of building a new car. In the short time they’d had, they had put together a basic structure, the body, tires, and certain key components. They had gone through about two hundred cars of the Commonwealth, and almost had a whole new car. It was weird, in this place, people took out most of the parts from under the hood. And left just an empty husk, scavenging for parts. It was so hard to get anything good. But it wouldn’t be long now. Maybe a month. With one month, they would be ready to head out. Clyde and Craig silently made their way through the downtown area. Clyde whispered to Craig, “Ya know, I’m kinda pissed about the whoel ‘gettin’ pulled offa buildin’ thing,’ ya know?”  
“Dude, be happy you’re alive.” Craig whispered back. For a while, they’d been operating under this method of sending two man parties out in search of goods. Their base was almost inaccessible to anyone, so whoever was waiting there was safe. They also had to make sure they weren’t being followed They took a long way around, and ended up on the other side of the city. Craig and Clyde were almost home free when Craig put a hand to Clyde and stopped him.   
“What is it?” he asked.  
“Brotherhood.”  
“Fuck, really?” He looked around the corner and saw a pair of armour wearing brotherhood soldiers. “Well, we don’t got any problems, let’s just go past.”  
“Hm. I don’t trust Brotherhood, you know that.”   
“Man, I hope you’re not suggestin’ we try takin’ an alternate route.”  
“I don’t wanna cross ‘em.”  
“Aww, come on, man, fuck that.”  
Suddenly, there was a voice from behind them, “What the hell o you two think you’re doing?” The two of them turned around in surprise pointing their guns at the speaker, a Brotherhood conscript, who pointed back.  
Clyde and Craig looked at each other, and then at the brotherhood agent. Clyde spoke, “Nuffin. What a’ you doin’?”  
“My job. I’m patrolling. Why are you hiding back here?”  
“We’re just trying to get back to our home. We were scavenging for parts,” Craig told him.  
The conscript took what he said into account and lowered his gun. “Alright. Feel free to go through.” THe two of them looked at each other again and put their weapons away.   
“Thanks,” Clyde said.  
“Right.” The conscript walked back down the road to his superiors and Craig and Clyde cautiously walked down the same way. As they were walking by, Craig decided to listen in on their conversation. “I saw more of those Rust Devils heading in the other direction.” the conscript told his leader.  
“Hmm. They’re becoming a real problem, those ones. Since they showed up, last year, they’ve steadily been growing.”  
The other brotherhood member in the power armour let out a sigh, “I should’ve gotten on the Prydwen and headed back to the Capital instead of staying here.”   
As the two of them walked by, Clyde asked Craig, “You know anything about the Rust Devils?”  
“I only heard about them when others are talkin’ about them. Some people in Good Neighbour once talked about ‘em.”  
“Do ya think we should get a look?”  
“We don’t need any more enemies. We should just get outta here as soon as we can, where the Gunners won’t follow us.”  
“Hm.”  
The two of them came up to their secluded home on the outskirts of the city. THe area was pretty clear of anything. It used to be a busy section of the city, back when the Railroad lived next door, and then institute synths, but now, there wasn’t much of anyone in this section. Craig and Clyde slipped into the basement to get a look at their vehicle, a suped up Military Tank turned into an RV by the handiwork of the Highway Star’s three mechanical wizards. The thing could take a beating and make it cross country. The problem with it, though, was that it didn’t scream “speed.” In the NCR, cars were becoming increasingly common, and this baby could probably sell. Then, they could go about creating a badass image for themselves. They made their way up to the top of the structure, where they had put up a ramshackle house for themselves. As they entered, they saw Bebe and Nichole sitting together.  
“Baby!” Clyde called out, and Bebe got up and ran over to him.  
“Hey, sweety!” She called back, and wrapped herself around him, kissing him.  
“How’d it go?” Nichole asked.  
“Bad,” Craig said dismissively, walking over to the fridge they had, and pulling out something to snack on. He sat down next to her, biting into a squirrel on a stick, and asked, “Where’re Tweek and Token? And Jimmy, and Eliza?”  
“Out,” She told him.  
Craig’s reaction was delayed, as he didn’t believe what she just said. “Out?”  
“Yeah. They’re headin’ over to Diamond City. They said they needed a few things. I don’t know what they think they’re gonna get there.”  
Craig stood up, and walked right back out the door, saying “I’ll be back.”  
Clyde called out to him, “See ya soon!” And turned back to Bebe, “So, how’s the little guy holdin’ up?” Rubbing Bebe’s stomach.  
“Oh, they’re fine, but I wish their fatha wouldn’t go out so much, puttin’ himself in danger all the time.”  
“Baby, it’s for the good o’ the group!”  
Craig looked about his general area. They would have to go through the downtown area, why would they leave without letting him know. Why did all of them go? It seemed stupid to him. He immediately set out through the city once more.  
Token, Jimmy and Tweek were not currently at Diamond City. They, in fact, had no plans of going to Diamond City. It was Tweek who had gotten the idea. He knew where to get the remaining parts for the car that they needed. They had to get it from the people who spent their time jacking mechanical parts for themselves. The technophiles calling themselves the Rust Devils. Heard about them from Takahashi in Diamond City. Most people didn’t speak Japanese, and Takahashi spoke it exclusively. Most of the time he just asked what you wanted, and people would say yes back. But takahashi was surprisingly complex. Japanese was a skill Tweek picked up living in the Mojave, running from the Legion. He spent a while locked in a hole with foreign immigrants put into a vault with multiple languages to see which would come out the dominant language. There he learned the main and secondary languages of the vault, main being Spanish, secondary being Japanese. He thinks the vault was called vault 46.  
Diamond City was a city based on whispers, but Takahashi told Tweek of a group he hadn’t heard most of the people talking about, because humans weren’t the ones at threat from them. The Rust Devils spend their time kidnapping robots and turning them into their own workers. They were a dangerous and powerful group. Not on the level of the Gunners or the Minutemen, definitely not the Brotherhood of Steel, but they were a cut above the rest of the two bit raider groups that hold up a block of road in the city. They had room to grow, and could move throughout the Commonwealth. Tweek decided he should go check it out, but didn’t want to go alone. Tweek waited for Craig to be gone before heading out, bringing Eliza as his back up. Then, Token and Jimmy insisted on coming along with him, too.   
Tweek had a knack for getting into places people normally couldn’t. He learned unconventional entrance methods to stay alive, and had spent the past month observing Rust Devils from rooftops. He’d managed to track them down to their base, a satellite station on the outskirts of the city. He wasn’t planning on going in, guns blazing. But now that Token and Jimmy were with him, stealth would be difficult. Tweek told Token and Jimmy, “Wait here. If I need any assistance, I’ll signal you guys. Got it?”  
The two of them both nodded, and Tweek turned to Eliza who was low to the ground and looking serious. Eliza was a Rottweiler, and Rottweilers are traditionally related to Mastiff dog breeds. Mastiffs were working dogs. Many of which would find their way into combat along with their owners. In six months, Tweek had made Eliza his best friend, and suited her to work with his way of stealth. Lucky she was so young. If all went right, the two of them could get in and out without alerting any of the raiders. The purpose of this operation was to find out what they had that they could use and get back out. Then, he could tell Craig if there was anything good.  
There weren’t many lurking around outside the facility. But there was only one entrance. Tweek gave it a knock, and then a few seconds later someone answered saying, “What’s the password?” Tweek didn’t respond. “Hey, I asked what’s the fuckin’ password.” Tweek continued to remain silent. “Are you gonna fuckin’ answe me, or am I gonna have ta come out there and make you fuckin’ talk?” Tweek remained silent. Then the man came out, pointing a gun straight forward. Tweek put a silenced rifle to his temple and shot him dead without making a noise. He removed his top piece of armour and put it on, to try and blend in down there. He then entered carefully.  
Token and Jimmy were waiting patiently outside the facility. Jimmy asked, “H-hey, Token, d-do you think Tweek wanted us here?”  
Token turned and questioned him, “What do you mean?”  
“W-Well, we sort of just in-i-invited ourselves along for this one, didn’t we?”  
“Jimmy he was going into a raider camp, do you suppose we should’ve just left him?”  
“I-I’m just saying, you might have a s-s-soldier’s training and all, but T-Tweek sure survived a long time on his own. He m-m-must know a th-thing or two about avoiding danger. You’ve seen him bef-fore in combat, haven’t you?”  
“So what? We leave him to handle the gang all by himself? What if things end up going South?”  
“I’m just saying, Craig hasn’t just surrounded himself with idiots. We all have our own capabilities. Th-that’s what makes the Highway Stars come together and f-form such an invincible team.”   
Token looked out and took in what Jimmy had to say. That’s when he noticed figures coming his way. He could barely make them out, lifting the scope of his gun to his eyes and getting a clear look. He recognized a man running at them, pointing right at them. “Is that that Jason fella?”  
“Wait, wh-what? Jimmy asked.  
“Jason, the gunner.” Token moved his scope around to see a blurry looking legion of Gunners coming his way. “Oh, fuck.” Token lowered his gun, and turned back to Jimmy. “We gotta hide. Now.”  
“W-What’s the matter?”  
Token raised his finger and pointed out about a half mile out, “We’ve got a big problem coming this way. We’d better duck.”  
“Crap.” Token grabbed hold of Jimmy and helped him get into the weeds nearby. It probably wouldn’t be a good enough defense. Token waited about thirty seconds until he heard the sound of boots. There must have been at least thirty Gunners coming their way. Token quickly removed the nozzle from his gun and fired off three shots. He waited and heard the shouting.  
“What the fuck was that!?” He heard over to his right. “GUNNERS!” And then, the firing started, “GUNNERS, COMIN’ THIS WAY!” Then a maelstrom of bullets started going off.   
Inside the facility, Tweek hid as more Rust Devils went running out to help their friends ward off the intruders. He cautiously moved out of cover when he thought he was in the clear, checking every which way for people coming. And went in deeper. He was most surprised to see something that was a better value than anything else he’d seen yet in the Commonwealth. In this facility were a series of tanks, ready for the taking. He looked upon them with great surprise. Their condition was much better than anything they’d found outside of this place. They might’ve been pretty dusty, but with a new power source, one of these babies could be running and fit everyone inside. This could get them out of the Commonwealth no problem. Except one. How the hell would you get one of these things out?  
Craig hadn’t gotten far when he heard shots being fired. He was still close enough to look back and see the parking structure, and then turn to see that, behind Fort Hagen, at the satellite facility, a squad of Gunners were heading towards the station, guns ablazing. THis seemed pressing. Why would the gunners be in the area if not to try and take out Craig and the Highway Stars? Their hideout was a rock throw away. Craig got low to the ground and looked over to them warily. They weren’t heading towards the parking structure, it didn’t seem. They actually seemed to be heading up towards the satellite station. Craig raised a pair of binoculars around his neck to his eyes, and searched the area. He could see the Gunners with their backs to him, then looked up to see there were people firing back from rafters set up throughout the satellites. A gang? He hadn’t seen them before, how could a group of raiders set themselves up so close to his base without anyone having ever noticed? He looked around, trying to get a look at how people were moving throughout the groups, checking out where combat was heading. Craig didn’t want to get involved, but the fight couldn’t be allowed to stray. Any Gunners that veered off to the right, Craig would pick off. Craig made his way up to the Fort Hagen building, and crossed over to the right. Walking alongside the building, he peaked his head out and got another look at the area through his binoculars. No gunners were getting too far. Craig managed to get a look at a scared face in the crowd. Jason. Jason was ducking out from the Gunner crowd over to the weeds. It was harder for Craig to see him. Craig knew that it was Jason who had started the hunt for the Highway Stars throughout the Commonwealth. Craig decided he should end the nuisance.  
Token saw as Jason came toppling over to him. He scraped the top of his head, and then looked at Token and Jimmy. He raised his gun, and Token raised his in response. Token and Jimmy were hiding behind a car, and Token was lowered against the front hood, pointing an scoped rifle at Jason. He could shoot Jason’s head off if he wanted. Jason certainly wasn’t a bad shot, as the Token had come to realize. When they first met, he was a raider on the rise. But now, Jason had lost his spot in the Gunners thanks to the Highway Stars, and the losses they had caused for them. When he came with his small battalion, the Highway Stars weren’t even the ones they fought. Instead, they encountered a group of Minutemen. He knew exactly what had happened at that massacre of his men. The Minutemen were tipped off by Token that Gunners would be at this location at this time, and when they showed up at the edge of the city, Minutemen shot them down from across the water. Minutemen had better training, and the GUnners couldn’t get their shots across the water with any accuracy. Except of course Jason. But Jason knew that the Highway Stars were still nearby that day. After the massacre ended, Jason returned an hour after the Minutemen were out of the area. He checked the gunshots. There were shots that came from the left of them, on the same shore. The Highway Stars had been shooting from a rooftop. When the battle had ended, about four Gunners had made it out alive, and they told of how Jason had lead them into a massacre. Catching and killing the Highway Stars was his way back in. And he would make sure to succeed in this. Jason had spent too long on his own, drinking away his sorrows. He could see Token, and he was not going to throw away his shot.   
“Hey, Jason,” he heard at his side. Jason turned to see Craig crouched down pointing a gun at him. Token was just as surprised as Jason to see Craig. “Alright, Jason put down the gun, and let’s end this quietly.” Jason felt the shame and fear welling inside of him. Even now, he couldn’t win. When he had lost everything. Jason dropped his gun, which Craig grabbed, and walked Jason over to the car, where he sat down next to Token, who stepped back and pointed his gun at Jason. Craig was at Jason’s side with a gun to his head. He took a second to take in Jimmy and Token’s being here, and asked them first, “Where’s Tweek?”  
Token looked to Jimmy nervously, and Jimmy told him, “I-Inside the Satellite F-F-F-Facility.”  
Craig looked to Jimmy, then to Token, who averted his eyes. “Keep this one under wraps for now, and head back to the base. I’ll be back when I know Tweek’s safe.”  
Craig stayed crouched low and started to approach the facility. Jimmy turned to him and tried calling out, “W-W-Wait, Craig. Tweek’s f-f-fine,” but Craig kept going, ignoring what he had to say. Jimmy turned back to see Jason, who looked despondent.  
Craig creeped up to one of the buildings, his pistol at the ready to put holes through anyone who crossed him. The raiders here were pretty distracted fighting off the Gunners. Craig took note that the guys here looked pretty tough compared to usual two bit raider group he'd see. They had fancy metal armour and seemed to have a lot of members. He came up to one of he satellites without being seen, and found a door, opening it and slipping in. The second he entered the facility, Craig ran into a group of raiders heading out, ready to fire. Craig had nowhere to go, one gun at the ready, and no other guns on his person. Their armour looked thick, and there were five of them. He liked his chances. When they saw him, they had backed up slightly, which Craig had the opportunity to close space in, and place his gun on the neck of the first man on the stairs, putting a hole through him. He grabbed at the hole and fell back onto his partners. Craig grabbed his gun and fired behind him without moving around his body for cover. He heard them moan in pain. Craig leapt onto the ground below and ran down the hall to the nearest door. He had managed to kill three of the raiders, but two were now after him. He ran into a pair of Mr. Handies, and killed one with a single shot, jumping onto the other, weighing it down, and plugging in the Pip boy he had. Quickly, he reprogrammed the Mr. Handy, and let it loose on his pursuers, getting down off of Mr. Handy, getting low to the ground, and aiming the gun he’d picked up at one raider, pounding a dozen shots into him before he fell. The Mr. Handy took care of the other.  
Craig turned and looked at the door behind him another one of the raiders was standing there, his gun down, off guard. Craig raised his gun, preparing to fire, before the raider called out to him, “Craig! What are you doing here?”   
Craig lowered his gun to his side, and ran over to the raider, lifting there helmet. Underneath, he saw Tweek’s face revealed, flinching away from him, looking up at him through one worried eye. Craig pulled him to the side of the door. He whispered into his ear, “What the fuck are you doing here!?”  
“Trying to find parts! This place is a treasure trove! It’s a wonder why we didn’t come here sooner! Look,” Tweek took hold of him hand and looked around the corner before pulling Craig over to the doorway and point to the large vehicles littered around the room. “There are about a half dozen tanks in this place.”  
“Woah… How the hell did they get those in here? They could actually tear through a good section of the Commmonwealth if those got up and running.”  
“But...what if we got one up and running ourselves?” Craig looked to Tweek who looked to him with hope in his eyes.  
“How the fuck do ya get one o’ those outta here?”  
“I’ve been looking into that. To your right.” Craig took a moment to look to his right. Then he backed up. There was a large steel door that looked as though it hadn’t budged in years. Then up the slope. There was a second, smaller door at the end of this hall. This was the exit for the tanks. The entrance for the tanks. Craig got the idea of the highway stars driving cross country in a tank, and it seemed glorious.  
“Okay, how are the tanks lookin’?”  
“They need a power source. This base has only been filled up in the last few years. They haven’t been touched since the end of the world, and their batteries are dead.”  
“Beautiful.”  
The fight was seemingly calming down outside. The Gunners had overpowered the Rust Devils, and were recuperating. They’d lost a good deal of men, but the lost seemed worth it. The Rust Devils were a thorn in the side of the Gunners going on three years. And here was their base. They could run the Rust Devils into the ground, take this place for their own. Despite their intentions of taking out the Highway Stars, which Jason was leading them towards, this was a bigger threat they had come across.   
Craig and Tweek were cautiously investigating the first few tanks, when they heard the sound of people coming into the base. Craig moved over to Tweek, putting his body in front of his. “Stay close to me.” They put their guns up, ready for anything to come through that door. They backed up and made their way up a set of stairs to the left of the room. Then, about a dozen Gunners entered the room. Craig watched them carefully. Three of them were immediately drawn to the tanks. Four more kept going into the facility, while the other five searched the perimeter of the room. One of them was about to make their way up the stairs, when Tweek shot him down. Craig took Tweek’s silenced gun and took out the three investigating the tanks.He had to reload the gun, while the Gunners began looking for the shooter. Upon finishing reloading, he handed the rifle back to Tweek and jumped over the railing, taking out two more with his revolver and jumping over to a tank for cover. He stared forward. The door they’d entered through was in front of him. Craig only had to shoot one more who had taken the initiative to move in on Craig while leaving cover.  
“You’re clear,” Tweek called to him, and Craig looked about. There was no one left. “The ones from the next room, they’ll be coming!”  
“Got it!” Craig replaced the three bullets of his six shot, and headed towards the door. Tweek made his way back down the stairs, hearing the four gunshots loudly reverberate. Coming to the bottom of the stairs, Craig walked back over to him, twirling his pistol on his forefinger. “We’re good. So, we’re gonna need some juice for these. How fast do you think one of these babies can go?”  
“I dunno, 30 mph, maybe?”  
“Ugh. Think we can speed this thing up?”  
“Don’t know that either. That’d have to be up to you.”  
“Hmph.”


	3. Returning back

It was two weeks after The Rust Devils’ main base of operations was taken over by Gunners. What was left of them was scattered across the Commonwealth, planning their vengeance against the Gunners, starting by taking back their base, which they intended to do soon. In just two weeks, every Rust Devil that was left was busy stealing and building up their robotic forces, and making sure they could crush out what was holding up the old military base next to Lexington. Meanwhile, inside said base, a cache of old world tech was being worked on to be brought back to operating status, lead by a group of technicians that used to be Gunners, but were since replaced by Craig, Token, Tweek and Niccole, who had built a car out of crap in four months, only to realize there was a wealth of technology for them to just reach out and take a mere half mile from their temporary house in the basement of a multi level parking lot. When they took on the job, they were told they couldn’t leave until they were finished. So, they weren’t allowed to go back to that rat filled den that they’d left the rest of their friends in. They might not have had a lot of reason to worry, their biggest fear in the Commonwealth was the Gunners, who were distracted with the operation of replacing the Rust Devils, and they had faked their own deaths, so there should be no reason for them to be looking for them, but the Gunners is still an immense operation, and if they decided to thoroughly search the area, that could be quite a serious problem. Plus, back in their small shack that can barely fit five people when they’re crammed in, there wa a particular hostage that they were worried about.  
When the attack that drove the Rust Devils out occurred, the Gunners were being lead by the twice shamed and excommunicated member, Jason, a formerly high ranking officer who had taken a disliking to the Highway Stars for refusing to join the Gunners. In four months, the Highway Stars caused both of those shames to him, and been the reason for his dishonorable discharge, as well as the bounty on his head. That former commander now sat in the Highway Star base, alone with Jimmy, the only Ghoul in the Highway Star gang. It was his responsibility to watch Jason and keep him alive. After they captured him, Jason sat quiet for about five days. After that much time of switching shifts watching him, Clyde, Bebe and Jimmy discussed what their plan was if they were found by the Gunners. This area very clearly wasn’t safe, and Bebe was near three months pregnant. She wasn’t in the right condition to be running around in a firefight, if one happened to break out. The three of them discussed moving to somewhere safer. But Diamond City was expensive, and was still iffy on Ghouls, and in Good Neighbor, you might get stabbed in your sleep. There were plenty of smaller settlements aligned with the minutemen, but the Highwaymen weren’t all too welcome among the Minutemen. Since they became a bigger force, they decidedly took up a no tolerance policy on all forms of whatever they felt to be scum. No gangs were welcome in Minutemen colonies. But they could provide clean food, and that would be worth the travel. JImmy made a decision.   
“You two should go. A settlement more North might be a better place to stay, the Gunners definitely aren’t gonna go into Minutemen territory. I’ll stay with Jason here and wait for the other guys to finish putting together one of those tanks.”  
Bebe and Clyde looked to one another, and then to Jimmy, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”  
“I doubt the Minutemen would kick out a pregnant woman and her husband.”  
“Boyfriend,” Clyde decided to caveat his sentence. Bebe gave him a weird look.  
“Husband sounds better. Remember, it’s the minutemen. They’ll appreciate the wholesomeness.”  
“Yeah, and what’s the big deal? Pretending to be my husband shouldn’t be too big a problem? It ain’t exactly too much of a commitment.”  
Clyde didn’t move his head, glancing nervously to Bebe, and then back to Jimmy, “Right. Course, no problem.”  
Jimmy looked at both of them. “Right, anyway.” Jimmy shuffled his feet and cleared his throat, “So, anyway, you’ll go t-to a settlement north, perhaps that Sunshine Tidings co-op. That shouldn’t be too far of a journey, especially if you take Eliza.” The gang’s dog was sleeping outside the door to the makeshift shed, underneath the one working light in the boarded up lot the home was built in. Upon hearing her name, Eliza opened her eyes and raised her head to look over to the three of them.  
“Really? You don’t think you should keep the dog with you? I’m pretty sure she listens to you better than either of us.” Bebe pointed out.   
“I think it’d be better if we minimized how of our food here we were using up.”  
“Hm. Fair point”  
“But are you sure you’ll be alright here alone with Jason?” Clyde asked.  
“P-p-please, I might not be the best fighter in the group, but I still know how to handle myself.”  
Clyde and Bebe looked to one another, again. “Alright. If you think it’s a good idea. WE trust you to be able to handle yourself, Jimmy.” Clyde told him with a shrug and a smile.  
“Wait, we do?!” Bebe asked, not on the same page as him.  
“Bebe, this is something that Jimmy is taking care of. He’s got this.” Clyde gave a whistle, “Eliza, here girl!” Eliza came running up to Clyde. He pet her head and headed back to the hut.  
Bebe walked next to him, arms crossed, “Why do you think this is a good idea? Jimmy has one leg and is a hundred and twenty. I don’t think leaving him alone is the best idea.”  
“Ehh. He’s got a replacement limb better than any of mine. I trust him to handle himself. He can at least handle an assault rifle, and what more could he need? That ability shouldn’t be understated.” Craig looked in front of him for a moment blankly smiling, before tilting his head and squinting.” The two of them walked into the shed, Eliza waiting at the door.  
At a table in the first of two rooms was Jason. He was sulking, as he had been for five days, looking down at his hands. The two of them stared at the foe they’d beaten, most noticeably in spirit. After about fifteen seconds of on looking Jason glared up at them. Clyde raised into view the six shot he’d bolted to his belt to always have on hand at a moment’s notice. The thing was hard to reload, being attached to a belt, but it meant he was always armed, and if he was facing the right way, made firing fast and easy at the drop of a pin. It was good for the current purpose it was being implemented, watching a single person, but was near useless in a fight with many people. But Jason hadn’t given him a reason to use it. He’d been sitting there for days. The two of them moved past him into the next room.  
In Jason’s mind, his life had come to an end. He had no feasible way out of this cruel death he had been awaiting for five days now. He’d very thoroughly taken in the room in which he was held. A tin hut, made out of spare parts from broken down vehicles and what they could rip out of piles of destroyed buildings, a table they must’ve gotten from the donut shop across the street. This room functioned as a living room and kitchen combination, although the concept of rooms was particularly lost on them. There was a couch at the dining table, and directly in front of a shelf crammed with crams, muddled with mutfruits and covered with cutlery. Trying to make that alliteration was the most fun Jason had had in days. Someone very clearly stepped over the blanket whoever had to sleep with every time anyone wanted something to eat. There were scuffy foot marks all over the bed and the sheets. There was a welcome mat inside, which seemed purposeless, considering no one ever swept the inside, and the floor was still that of the disgusting cave. Little did he even know of the dozen Feral ghouls that used to live here. He didn’t know much outside of this room. Light had two sources at varying times. Light came into the tunnel from unnatural sources at all times, and they cracked in through several holes in the room’s structure. The other was a lantern sitting on the table in front of him. The lantern was turned up and down at varying times, depending on whether someone was in need of sleep. Clyde and Bebe walked back out past Jason. He watched them leave. Clyde no longer had a gun at his waist, instead wielding a spiked bat, Bebe holding a 10 mm handgun, the both of them having rucksacks on their backs. They exited the room. He didn’t care about them, he thought. He looked down at his hands. There was a plate in front of him. It had a mutfruit he’d started taking bites out of an hour ago, but stopped because he didn’t feel like eating. He looked around the room. This room was horribly bland. There was so little to focus on. He looked back to the shelf of food to his right. He could count each item on the shelves, again. With no one in the room, Jason let his angry brow go. He stood back up, again. He put a hand to the wall behind him and stretched out his back. He went through the regular stretches, and then started doing some squats. After about twenty minutes of warming up his body, he sat back down. He then looked to the door. When no one came in, he looked down at his hands and started twiddling his thumbs.  
Jimmy walked into the room and walked up to the table. He looked down at Jason. “C-come on, we’re going for a walk.” Jason glanced up at him angrily, then looked back down. “I’m serious. You and me, we’re going out. I need your help with something.  
“What, is it my time in the long yard?” Jason said, gruffly.  
“Nope. Just need some backup on a special assignment. And you’re the best option.”  
Jason stared up at him for a moment of silence. “What are you doing?”  
“J-Jason. We might’ve spent three months fucking with you, but we’re n-not murderers. N-Neither are you. And th-this is a personal mission.”  
“Don’t you have a crew for that kind of stuff?”  
“Again, this is p-p-personal.”  
“What is it, reconnecting with an old pre war ghoul fling?”  
“No. W-well, not t-too far off, actually. B-but the situation is pretty complicated.” Jason glared up at him, now confused. “Look, I can the situation l-later. What I need is your faith in me. If you want-t-to make it out of the C-Commonwealth, you’re going to have to have faith in the group that didn’t turn you over to the Gunners, who v-very much want you d-d-dead. There a bounty on your head, Jason, and the G-Gunners put it there. You are n-no longer a Gunner, Jason. But that doesn’t mean your life is over. I’m trying t-to give you a second chance, if you’ll help me out here. I want t-to show you you can t-trust the Highway Stars.” Jimmy stood waiting for his prisoner to come to a decision on his own.  
Jason stood up, eyes closed and ball fisted. “What is this task?” He asked.  
“Like I said, I’ll tell you when the t-time is right. For now, we need to head to Diamond City. I have a man I need to meet up with, and we’re g-going to n-need some supplies. We should dress c-casually. Lose the Gunners stitch and the gang monick-cker. And you’re going to c-c-carry the stuff.”   
While this was all going on, in the military base, The greater majority of the HIghway Stars were working undercover. Still. We cut to them, now, for a minute. Tweek, Niccole, Craig and Token were all working on different tanks. They each had to get two up and running, working day and night with few breaks. They actually only had to get one tank working, for which they scrounged parts from each of the other tanks and congregated together in one of them, which they were making great progress with. The rest, they just had to rig to blow up for massive damage, and to make sure the Gunners never got to terrorize the Commonwealth, or the rest of the country, considering that’s near a dozen tanks they’re talking about. With that kind of small fleet, they could go tearing out of the commonwealth after shooting everything in their way out of the way.  
Token was the best mechanic among them, with the most formal training. He built the real tank, which was the one with the clearest path out of the facility. He was working inside the vehicle. Their group should be able to fit in this massive vehicle no problem. They might outnumber the seats by three and a dog, and they might have a lot to transport, but if necessary, they could strap anything excess to the roof. They’d make this work. They had to.  
Token pushed up the lid on the top of the tank and popped his head out, resting his arm on the top of the large vehicle. He looked about at his friends working on the other cars. “How much longer do you think this is going to take?” He asked the group.  
Craig looked up at him from the tank to Token’s left, before turning back to his work, “That’s all dependent on you.” He told him.  
Token looked from Craig down to his arm. It was covered with a green jumpsuit, customary for the Gunners mechanics. And the Pip boys he and Craig normally wore he had to give to Clyde and Jimmy, since they’d have no explanation of where they got a couple of Pip boys. “I hate these Jumpsuits.” He complained to his friends.  
“I dunno,” Tweek Chimed in, working at his right, “I like it. The green’s nice, and it reminds me of my childhood. I used to wear a jumpsuit kinda like this all the time.”  
Token turned to Tweek, and lifted himself out of the tank with a huff, sitting on the edge of the porthole. “I don’t remember you ever talking about what you did before you were running from the legion. Jumpsuit. What, were you in a vault?”  
“No, military prison. But they had had plenty of excess jumpsuits for both prisoners and guards, in Military green and commie red. I preferred the military green.”  
“Huh. Had your parents lived there with you? I remember you saying you were orphaned early.” Craig gave a soft groan. He had heard all about Tweek’s past.  
“Yeah, when I said early, I meant I never got to see my parents. My name actually comes from my father’s last words holding me as my mother gave birth to me in that prison’s hospital. He said ‘he’s a tweek. Like his father, like his mother. And he’s yours, now,’ handing me off to a Chinese man, who didn’t know what that meant, because he’d never been taught that word. My name comes from my dad saying I was gonna die a drug addict like him.”  
The fourth tank in the row had its lid burst open, and out popped Niccole, covered in oil. “What are you three doing? Get back to work before the guards start actually paying attention to us.”  
The three of them looked up at her. “Right,” They complied with her, and got back to work.

Switching right on back to Jimmy, He and Jason were standing in front of the green gate of Diamond City. They stood maybe twenty feet away from the entrance, beyond the statue of the swatter man at the door. Jimmy stared at the gates of the city. There were four guards just inside. He’d gotten to know two of them well. “Alright, Jason, we’ve gotta be c-c-careful from here on out. Things c-could g-go bad at any moment in Diamond City. For people like us, it's worse than goodneighbor.”  
“What are we even doing here? A former Gunner and a Ghoul? Anything they’ve got here, we could get easier in Goodneighbor, anyway.”  
“There’s one thing here that they don’t have anywhere else in the Commonwealth. And I’ve gotten in before pretty easily. It gets easier every time. They never really figured out we were a gang, so it was easy enough when we brought something to trade. Makes think we’re just really terrible t-traders.”  
“What the fuck do they got in Diamond city? Noodles!? Thas the one thing I ever hear comin’ outta Diamond City that sounds to be worth a damn.”  
“Tell y-you what, while I’m handling my business, w-why don’t-ch-ch-you get yourself a bowl of those famous noodles? I sh-shouldn’t be long. J-just meeting up with a f-friend, and then getting some s-supplies, and then w-we’ll be off.”  
“Fine. I don’t wanna be in there long, though, ya hear me?”  
“D-don’t worry. This’ll be c-quick.”  
The two of them walked up towards the city gaits slowly, foot by foot. Jason was pretty nervous of a firefight breaking out. It had happened to him before. Heading through the main city with his gunner crew would sometimes end up getting him in trouble, as they’d stray too close to the guards traveling route. As they made it into the front entrance, two of the guards walked up to them. One called out, “Jimmy, izzat you?”  
“Of course, David, who else’d it b-be?”  
“Dammit, Jimmy, you had these boys here on edge. Stridin’ around in a suit like that, you look like one o’ the goons outta goodneighbor. I had to hold the boy’s guns down. Don’t need more random shootings around the city.”  
“Yeah, I got you, there.” Jason said in a condescending voice.  
David turned from Jimmy to Jason with a, “Hey”. Jason was trying to avoid eye contact before he felt this David staring at him. He had to glance at him, nervously. “That’s a Commonwealth accent. You’re from around here, ain’t’cha?”  
Jason turned to David, “Uhh, yeah. I’m, uhh, formerly outta Goodneighbor.”  
“Ohh, I spend a lotta free time down there with a couple of the duty boys, here. The third rail bar is second to none when it comes to cheap booze. Better than what we got over here.”  
“Yeah. It’s a nice town, if you know it well enough,” Jason acknowledged his attempts to be friendly with a warmer response in kind.  
David took a step closer. “Bit of advise. You probably know this, but don’t go telling people where you're from. You’ll get along better with everybody if they don’t think you’re junky. Jimmy probably told ya this, but folks aren’t as accepting as the guards can be. If the folks in power had as much control over us as they wanted, there’d be a lot fewer people going into the city. Then, they might realize what they’re xenophobia’s really doing to their profitability. You wouldn’t know how many people here are former raiders by lookin’ at ‘em. But they’re as harmless as the people livin’ in the stands, if not less.” Jason was quite shocked at how understanding the guard was of their situation. David took a step back, “I trust you won’t be causin’ any troubles. You two are free to proceed.” Jimmy walked towards the stairs leading into the city, Jason taking a moment to take full account of what had just happened before quickly following up. “And Jimmy, very lovely suit, now that I think about it. Yellow is very much your color.”  
“Thanks, Dave,” He said, waving back to him. Jimmy turned back to the stairs. “That David, s-such a sweetheart, really.”  
“I’m, uhh. I’m kind of in shock, after that. I didn’t expect to be given any advice from guards tryin’ to be helpful.”  
“There are a lot of good people in this city, d-despite how hateful it can be to everyone who wasn’t born in it. I’m h-happy about how many of them are g-guards.”   
“Huh.” Jason looked up from the stairs to the light at the end of this tunnel. As he and jimmy made it to the opening and light filtered in, for the first time, he saw the from the inside the fammous Diamond City. H let out a soft, honest, “Wow,” of amazement at it’s construction. It was a rather impressive sight. Something that sticks with someone the first time they see the many buildings built inside the stadium of old, from the large, glowing signs built all around it’s structure, to the big smoke stack that looked a bit like a wizard’s hat in the center of the main plaza. The two of them made their way down the steps into the city’s front. A girl stood on a podium, shouting out about the latest news, offering out a newspaper. Jimmy kindly took her up on the offer, and paid her ten caps. Jimmy looked at the headline of the paper he’d picked up.  
“Last m-month, they were running an interview with a former raider out of Nuka World. Seemed like it was just a p-p-promotion for the place, though. P-probably were paying for ss-story, and the headline. G-guess they gotta make ends meet somehow, b-but I’m not f-fan of paid for news stories. You ever been t-to Nuka World?” Jimmy asked his companion.  
Jason was looking around the central market of the city, when he looked back to Jimmy, “Huh? Oh, Nuka World, you say? Nah. Haven’t ever left the Commonwealth.”  
“It’s p-pretty nice. Was ruled by raiders for a long time, but someone with Pre war business knowledge went in there and reassessed their b-bu-business model. P-parently, three gangs used to live there, Two were interested in murder, one was m-more interested in money. When m-money’s your interest, your m-much easier to work with. The least c-compliable gang was snuffed out, and the second was on it’s way to being taken out, t-too, so what was left ran. What was left was what is there, n-now. The Operators, which were willing t-to meet the demands of th-their new landlord, this Vault d-dweller lady. She gave them h-half the land, and th-they gave up the Slave t-trade. They refurbished the Nuka World factory, and started producing fresh N-nuka cola. C-combine that with a k-kiddie castle, turned hotel casino, and you’ve g-got a free t-trading, with fresh d-drinks and a semi-friendly environment. It’s really c-quite nice. The Operators get their land, and they pay a fifteen percent tax for all their profits to the lady who g-gave them it.”  
“Huh. Cool. Why’d you tell me all that?”  
“I don’t know, the game’s ending was pretty dissatisfying, and turning it into a second New Vegas seemed cooler.”  
“What?”  
“N-nothing. I’ve got an ap-p-pointment I’ve gotta go keep. You stay safe. Here,” Jimmy handed him a fistful of caps, “Buy yourself one of those f-famous noodle cups.”  
“Hm. Alright, fine.” Jason watched as Jimmy walked off, leaving him alone in the center of town. He continued to look around to all the places in center of town. Then he turned to what he was leaning on. It was the counter of Takahashi’s. He gave a “Hm,” And walked around to where there were half a dozen bar stools. There was a woman sitting and enjoying a bowl of noodles. He looked to the chef on the other side of the counter and then to the stool in front of him. He took a seat in front of the robot server. Takahashi came up to him, “Nani Shimasu ka?” The protectron asked him.  
“umm…” Jason confusedly responded, “Noodle cup?” And he laid out his aps in front of him. The protectron grabbed the caps in one hand and turned around to his pot on the stove, pulling out the ladle and filling a bowl. He then slid the bowl down to Jason, and Jason stared down, grabbing the sticks sticking out of it and looking from one to the other in each hand. “Uhh… What are…”  
The woman to Jason’s left poked him in the shoulder. He turned to her to see her holding up the chopsticks in her hand. “Like this,” She told him, annoyed by his lack of knowledge on using chopsticks. Jason looked at the chopsticks and put both in one hand. He then plunged them into the bowl, and fiddled the stick in his fingers, trying to get a solid grasp on anything. He then pulled out three strings of noodle, tightly squeezed between the two sticks, and lifted them to his mouth, stuffing them inside and pulling the sticks out, now leaning over the bowl, and sucking the three noodles up with a violently sucking noise. The woman watched on in disgust as Jason figured out how to eat this local delicacy. As the three noodles each came fully into his mouth and he swallowed them down, Jason had a sudden feeling of warm joy at the taste and heat they put off, and took to trying harder to get more out of the bowl.  
Jimmy walked down an alley right off the main street and headed into a small business called, “Valentine Detective agency.” He knocked at the front door, and the voice of a woman was heard from the other side, saying “Come in.” And Jimmy did so slowly. Popping his head into the office, he looked about at what was the smallest business in Diamond City, able to fit its two employees and at most, two clientele inside at once. The only sound was that of the woman who had called him in, rustling through a file cabinet. It was a soft noise. The hustle of the city outside was cut off in this place, so it was the only noise in the room, and the quietness was appreciated. Jimmy let himself in and closed the door behind him.  
“It’s g-good to see you, again, Miss Perkins,” Jimmy greeted the working woman.  
The woman stopped filing through the papers and turned to the Ghoul at the door, “I thought that was you I’d heard, Mr. Valmer” She greeted him. “I’m glad you’re here, too.”  
“Well, I’m flattered. Is, um, is M-Mr. Valentine, in?”  
“Oh, yes, he’s just in his, uh, personal office, one room over.”  
“Oh! D-Did I come at a bad time? I’m s-sorry if this is inc-convenient, it’s just… If there’s any information he has for me, I’m g-gonna need it now.”  
From behind JImmy, from one room over, Nick Valentine entered the room. “Nonsense, Mr. Valmer. I’m available at all hours.” Nick walked from behind Jimmy over to his desk, right in front of JImmy, and took a seat. “Now, we’ve got you something that should help in your search.”  
Jimmy walked from the door to the seat across from Nick. “I’m g-glad to hear it.” Ellie walked from the filing cabinet behind Nick to the side of the desk and laid out a case file on the desk. The file had quite a few documents held within, from how it propped open.   
Jimmy looked down at the case folder and took hold of it with both hands, popping it open to see a detailed notebook page, a torn up document Nick must have collected, a depleted energy cell, and two pictures. Jimmy took out one of the two photographs Nick had taken it was of a girl with pale skin and a wig on in the traditional volumed style that was popular before the war. Her body was clearly not skin, but maybe a rubber film. The picture had caught her looking away, but had the side of her face. I was fairly distinct in its shape, and had eyes that looked like metal balls with glowing green rings. The rest of her was covered up fairly well, but from what could be seen, she was very clearly neither human nor ghoul. She looked closer to a synth, like that of NIck Valentine in front him. “This is great. This is a lot to go on, right here,” Jimmy gleefully announced, putting the picture of the girl back down and lifting up the first note page.  
“You’ll find everything I saw of her on there. I last saw the girl three weeks ago, when I spent a day following her. But I lost her pretty quick, when she lead me to a Brotherhood outpost. Braver than me to be able to run through one of their bases. Braver than any synth I’ve ever known.”  
“Sounds like her.” Jimmy told himself.  
Nick a moment to look down at his hands. The one with false, and the one all metal parts. He looked at the different palms. “Mr. Valmer… Synths like this friend of yours, they’re very rare. The intelligent generation 2.5, as I’ve started calling them. This is the second time now that I’ve come to find out I’m not the only one. I even went to visit a friend over this, going to the only other person I thought could help find someone like this. I don’t wanna pry into your personal life, but… I’ve got to ask, how do you even know this woman?”  
Jimmy looked up from the documents in his hands back to Nick. He took a moment to come up with his answer. “To be honest, Mr. Valentine, I’m not even sure I do. It’s just…” Jimmy thought back to two months ago. He was out with Tweek and Craig on a venture to Goodneighbor. They were seeing if there were any parts they could bargain for in the town, and when it came to bargaining, no one in the Highway Stars was better than Jimmy. They were trying to take a safe way through the central Boston city, when someone came running out from an alley, alone. It looked like a girl, although their skin was completely pale. When she came running out, Tweek and Craig both threw up their guns, but hesitated when she turned to face them. Her face was clearly not that of a real human’s but the fear in her face seemed to translate that of a real person’s.  
Upon seeing this girl’s face, Jimmy exclaimed, “W-Wait! Hold fire!” Both of Jimmy’s friends looked to him, then the girl, and then lowered their weapons. Jimmy stared at the girl for a second. Her face looked truly familiar, the way it was built. Like it was modeled after someone he once knew. As for the rest of her body, it was stripped of all clothes, and had a mannequin quality about it, but it still seemed to twist and fold over like a normal humans. Her body had quite a few holes through it, and the faux flesh from her leg had been torn off in places, her feet in particular having very little flesh left, as if she had been running for so long the flesh was worn away. When the two of Jimmy’s friends lowered their guns, the Synth looked from them to Jimmy, gave a nod of thanks, and the continued to run. Jimmy watched her go, but soon after, a group of four super mutants came running after her from down the alley.  
“WHERE DID METAL HUMAN GO!? WE WILL CRUSH STUPID MACHINE!” They shouted. Jimmy turned around to their threats and pulled out an automatic 10 millimeter pistol on them, open firing on one of the super mutants behind him, Tweek and Craig lifting their weapons and joining him in the attack. When all four of the mutants were dead, Jimmy looked all around the street, and the synth was gone.  
“She looks like an old friend. And I wanna find out why.”  
Nick stared at Jimmy with curiosity as he looked down at the picture of the woman he’d hired him to try and find.  
“Alright. I won’t pry any further. But before you go, let me give you one last piece of advice. Wherever this friend of yours is headed, she did have one unusual companion. On more than one occasion, she had a robobrain with her. It could talk, but very simply. Sometimes, if they were resting somewhere, and she picked up anything that was amiss, she’d take off like a bullet, leaving the poor guy alone. I tried talking with ‘em, but I couldn’t get anything out of him. Friendly fella, but if attacked, he’ll attack right back. I recommend trying to make friends with ‘em. Might help you out, if you can crack his code.”  
“N-N-Noted. Thanks for the help, Mr. Valentine. I app-preciate having a friend in this.” Jimmy stood up and straightened out his fancy yellow suit.  
“Anytime. After all, it’s what I’m here for. One last thing. The Highway Stars?” Jimmy face grew more serious at the mention of his gang. It’s something that no one should have known about in Diamond City. “They’ve got a pretty big bounty on their heads. And they’ve got quite a few names and descriptions on their list. Including Jimmy Valmer.” Nick Valentine stood up. “Be careful, out there.”  
Jimmy trusted that if he turned and walked for the door, he wouldn’t be getting a bullet in the back. “Do you know who placed it?”  
“Couldn’t tell ya. I’d avoid Goodneighbor, though. Lot of people to go hunting after high bounties. That should be it. Good luck out there, Mr Valmer.”  
“Right. And same to you, M-Mr Valentine. MIss Perkins.”  
“Good day, Mr. Valmer,” Ellie also told him goodbye.   
Jason was slurping down a second cup noodle when Jimmy came up to him. “C’mon, J-Jason. We’ve got some supplies to t-t-trade.” Jason glanced up from his bowl , which he was holding at 160 degrees to his body, pouring the noodles and soup straight into his mouth. He emptied the cup and put it down, letting out a gasp of hot air from his mouth.  
“Aaahhh.” He went on. “What? Oh, supplies.” he said, disappointed. He stood up from the food stand and followed Jimmy over to the nearby ammunitions store, where a salesman was shouting of his deals. Jimmy walked up to the man’s counter.  
“Hello, Mr. Rodriguez,” Jimmy greeted him.  
“Ahh, please, Jimmy, I’ve told you, to all my customers, it is simply Arturo. Now, what do we have for today? Something for you, or something for me?”  
“Trade,” Jimmy informed him, turning to his friend behind him, “Jason, the b-bag.” Jason had forgotten he was carrying around all of JImmy’s stuff on his back. Jimmy undid the locks on his bag and dumped out a dozen 10 millimeters that clashed against the table and formed a pile on his desk.  
“Ahh, a lovely haul, today. I see they’ve all been modded with double the clip size. These’ll be worth quite a bit. What do you want in return?”  
“Well, first, I’m keeping the clips, and to match the price for the guns, I’ll take some modifiers for my friend’s, here, plus more ammo. .45 gauge.”  
“Hm. What’s he toting?”  
“The last 10 millimeter. I want him well armed.”  
“Your friend have a name? Looks a bit familiar,” Arturo noted, scratching at his chin as he looked Jason over.  
“Cromwell. Friend of the Bobrovs, met him a while back in the Dugout inn. We’re going out on a trek North. We’re looking to meet up with some friends by Sanctuary Hills.” Jason looked at Jimmy trying not to look caught off guard. Jason was smart enough to know when to play along. Cromwell, he thought, never tried a Russian accent before, better to keep quiet.  
Arturo looked from Jimmy to Jason with a smile, “Ahh, Cromwell? How far back might you and the Bobrovs go?”  
Jason was put on the spot. Nevermind, looks like I’ll have to talk. Jason had little experience with Russian accents, but he’d heard holotapes of Russian soldiers back when he was with the Gunners, and they’d raided a particular stronghold of Russian and Chinese prisoners of war. “Far enough back to know what they put in the pigsvill they are selling there. And to avoid it,” he told Artutro, trying to sound Russian.  
Arturo broke out in laughter, “Hey, at least it gets the job done, right? Better than an all noodle diet. I mean, seeing you at Takahashi’s, you might disagree, but, hey, It’s better than nothing, right!? Hahah!” He joked, gesturing his arms every which way. “Anyway, it sounds like a fair enough deal, especially for this many guns. We can go ahead and call it square.”  
“Sure you don’t have-f-f-fifty caps b-back for me?”  
Arturo looked at him for a second with a single brow raised in question, letting a moment of pause set in, before “Fair enough.” And with that, he reached under his desk, and began to pull out boxes of ammo, placing them to the left of the guns. He then crouched down and quickly started counting out caps behind his desk, before putting down a small bag filled with them. He then turned to his wall of guns and gun mods. “Pick two,” He told him.  
Jimmy looked the wall over, “A f-firmer grip and a s-s-silencer.”  
“Coming right up,” And he turned to his wall, pulling two off the shelves. He turned back to his front counter and put one after the other on the table. Jimmy packed up the ammunition and the bag of caps, before reaching for the mods, but Arturo hadn’t yet taken his hands off of them. Hey, Jimmy, are you aware how many raider groups are between here and Sanctuary Hills?”  
“Mmm, n-no, couldn’t tell you, my friend.”  
“Ahh. No worries. Just hoping you stay safe, out there. I know of one that’s fetching a high bounty. But they can be pretty elusive.”  
“Hm. I’ll k-keep on guard.”  
“Of course. Have a lovely day, Jimmy. Good luck in the future.” Jimmy gave a final nod as Arturo removed his hands from atop the mods. And put them in the bag. “C’mon, Cromwell. Let’s g-get out of here.”  
The two of them turned and walked away from Arturo’s shop. Jimmy quickly made his way for the front entrance, Jason walking alongside the limping Ghoul. “So, we didn’t use the work bench right next to Arturo’s,” He whispered to Jimmy, “I’m assuming this is a very casual running away?”  
“Let me see that p-paper I handed you.” Jason handed Jimmy the Publick Occurences copy. “This p-paper runs a wanted section,” Jimmy unfolded the paper as he limped along, looking for the wanted ads, finding them in the center of the paper. “F-f-fuck. How long has this b-been in circulation?” Jason looked over Jimmy's shoulder at the paper. The wanted section was covered with the names and descriptions of Clyde Donovan, Craig, Token Black, Jimmy Valmer, Tweek/Tweak?, and worse than all that, Jason’s name and description, along with a photograph that there was for every Gunner, in case they managed to avoid an immediate death after being fired.   
“Jesus, that’s printed in the paper?” Jason looked up from the paper. There were three guards sitting at the steps, waiting for them. “They let us in so we couldn’t fight them. If we started shooting while we were outside the gates, we might’ve taken some down with us, hell, we could’ve taken them all down, I know I’m better than any of these guards, but now that we’re inside, we’ll be surrounded on all sides.” Jason looked back. There weren’t any guards behind them, blocking any exits. He did see Arturo, however. He looked over, leaning on his counter, with an amount of disinterest, before shooting a smirk at Jason. “Oh, fuck. You. Dick.”  
“They’re not g-gonna start a fire fight in the p-p-public square. Unless they’re p-p-prep-pared for civilians to g-get hurt,” Jimmy added in. “We’re not exactly fucked right off the b-bat, b-but we’re d-d-definitely not gonna be g-g-getting away from them easily. Gah, I st-t-tick out like a sore thumb. F-F-F-Fuck.” Jimmy grabbed Jason’s arm and started pulling him back towards the center of town.  
“I knew this was a bad idea. Really wish I had a choice in this.” Jason complained.  
“Jason, I’m g-gonna get us out of th-th-th-this. J-J-J-Just give me a s-second.” Jimmy took a look around. “Alright, f-follow me.” Jimmy limped back passed Arturo’s, shooting him a look. Arturo gave him the same smirk he’d given Jason and a look out of the corner of his eye. Jimmy went digging through through the bag on Jason’s back and pulled out the bag of caps he’d just gotten from Arturo. He stopped at the shop next to Arturo and held out the cap pack to the man shouting the store’s main product, “Hey, swatter, swatter, swatter, swing!”  
“S-s-scuse me, s-sir, I’d like t-to buy one of your swatters for fifty c-caps!”  
The man looked down at Jimmy from the foot higher perch he stood upon. “Why, you sunnova bitch, That sleazy amigo, Arturo might be willing to sell to ya, but I know what your deal is, you dirty fuckin’ ghoul! How dare you bring your criminal kind into ’ere, our peaceful fuckin’ city! Why, I got half ‘a mind to beat your fuckin’ head in before the guards take you a-”  
Jason got up on his perch and poked him in the side with the muzzle of his gun. “Y’see, this is the problem with Diamond City. Everyone thinks they’re better than everyone else, on whatever basis they can find. And so, it’s filled to burst with prejudice. A swatter for fifty caps, please.”  
The man selling baseball bats nervously handed the bat he was holding over to Jimmy.  
“Th-th-thank you.” Jimmy told him, and tossed the bag of caps at his feet, and Jason holstered his gun, stealthily.  
“Your stutter really kicks up in tense situations, huh?”  
“D-D-Don’t even worry about it. We’ll be g-g-getting out of this, y-you mark m-m-my words.” The two of them went down the alley where Jimmy had met with Valentine. By the time they had passed the entrance to the Detective agency, two guards had come into view on the other end of the alley. Jason looked back and saw another coming from behind. He reached for his gun, but Jimmy stopped.him. “Sh-shoot a g-gun in the city, or k-k-kill a guard, and we’re done for. Th-that’s where this c-comes in.” Jimmy walked towards the two guards, and they came towards him, their own swatters in hand, the one from behind pulling out a silenced pistol. Jason moved towards the guard with the gun, who was aiming for Jason before Jason ran right at him and knocked him to the ground.  
Jimmy came at the two security guards in front of him, bat in hand. One of them came running at him with a police baton. AS the guard raised his weapon above his head, preparing for a powerful downswing, Jimmy stuck his right leg out to the left and swept the legs of the man preparing to hit him, knocking both of his legs and sending him falling down, crashing his head into the wall. He then bashed him unconscious with the end of his bat before the next one came, wielding his own bat. He took a swing at Jimmy, but Jimmy smacked it back with his own bat, and then took a jab at his gut with it like a spear. It hit him in the stomach and took the wind out of him, but he grabbed onto the bat and would let go. Jimmy tried pulling his bat away, but he had a hold on it, so he put one hand on the other end of the bat and twisted his arm around. He then slid his body underneath the man’s arm, bringing his shoulder up on his elbow, and pulling down on the bat and up with his shoulder. HIs arm bent backwards and broke at the elbow. That forced him to let go of the bat, and let out a scream, before Jimmy came with another swing to his head. He was out cold on the ground. “We g-gotta move,” Jimmy said, turning to Jason. Unfortunately, he turned to see Nick Valentine in his doorway, looking around to see the three bodies on the floor.  
Nick took hold of the brim of his hat and lowered it down, closing his eyes. “Better run, Jimmy. Quick, before someone sees this mess.”  
“Th-th-thanks, Nick!” And the two of them kept on their way. They came out in front of the Dugout inn. Another pair of guards sitting at a table eating their lunch when one saw the two of them armed. He poked his partner, and made him turn to face them. “I don’t think all the guards know about us, yet.”  
“Why wouldn’t they?”  
“I don’t know, duty shifts? Maybe only those who’ve read the paper know w-what’s going on. You still got that c-copy?”  
“Hey, no weapons out in Diamond City!” One of the guards yelled out to them.  
“Sorry, officer!” Jason apologized. “Quick, where to?”  
“Right,” Jimmy decided.  
“Right back to the entrance?”  
“We’ve g-gotta hope they’re ch-chasing us.” The two of them started to move. “C-C-Quick, let me see that p-p-paper.” Jason handed Jimmy over the paper. “Yup. B-band new to circulation, not even a d-day old. June 5th, 2289.” Jimmy looked up from his paper to the front steps of the city. Two armed guards, rifles in hand. “Let me rem-mind you, nonf-f-fatal,” Jimmy warned Jason, as he raised a silenced pistol to the guards, who, as one turned to see them and prepared to point his gun and fire, took a bullet through the leg and fell to the ground. The other guard turned to his company’s shouting too late, as Jason was running at him and bashing him in the face with the silenced gun. Jason hobbled after him as fast as he could to take a full swing with his bat at the guard, hitting him across the chest and knocking him over the stair’s railing. Jimmy looked back at the city behind him. He took into consideration he might not see it again after what just happened. There were people who looked on in horror at the two men running for the exit, a woman turning a child away, covering her with her own body, a priest the two had to have run straight by, standing in front of the building closest to the exit, who just turned away in disapproval, and others beyond them, pointing and shouting in fear. He turned back to the stairs before him and continued on his way out. As he was coming up to the top of the steps, he could see Jason waiting at the bottom of the steps, gun in hand. Jimmy ran down to him, only to look out and see four Diamond City guards face down on the ground.  
“They were all shooting, I didn’t know what to do. I tried to take them out non lethally, but I couldn’t tell where I was shooting at times.”  
“Just go. We g-gotta get out of here.” The two of them ran off out of the city gates. More guards were outside, firing at them, but they didn’t bother stopping. Jason tried helping JImmy run along.  
When Jimmy and Jason ran out of Diamond City after shooting one guard and knocking another out of the park, no one had seen or heard what had happened. And the paper was still fresh enough that no one knew of the bounties those two people had on their heads, though now they’d be far more notorious in the city in the days following the incident. Only one person had a full scope of the event. Arturo Rodriguez. Arturo read the Publick Occurrence first thing in the morning, any day it was published. And he always checked the wanted section. But when he saw the group that was in the news today, he had an amount of glee, knowing a number of the names on the list, and knowing of someone who’d have a particular interest in them. But then, even better than just knowing the wanted offenders, not one, but two of them came walking up to his store, including one he didn’t happen to know previously, but came with a picture capturing his stupid mug. And when he saw that the two of them managed to escape, he had that same joy increase, again. The moment the two of them left the city, Arturo returned home, and locked the door behind him. He then walked to an AM radio by his bedside, switching it on and calling up to the other end.   
ON the other side of the Boston Ruins, in a small town called Goodneighbor, a man was sleeping in till noon in his hotel room in a shitty, drug peddling hotel that one lonely mercenary happened to have to rent most nights, if he was down on his luck, which was a shame for someone with as wide a skill set as himself. He didn’t have many belongings, but one of them did include an AM radio that he kept on at much as he could, in case one of his three siblings came calling. Suddenly, one of them did. “David?” A voice called out of the radio. “Dah-veed!” It called, even louder being insistent. “David, if you can hear this, you better pick up!” The man turned over in his bed, which he slept on with no blanket, looking over through half open eyes to the radio on the floor next to the mattress upon which he was accustomed to. He closed his eyes and reached over for the receiver. “Yeah, Si? Quien es?”  
“David, it’s Arturo.” He was greeted in response.  
“Ahh,” David exclaimed, “Big brother. Good to talk. Tell me, why are you calling me when I’m trying to sleep off my depression?”  
“David, I’ve got a better cure for your depression then sleep. I’ve got a lead that can help you with your work.”  
David raised himself to a sitting position with shock. “Go on.”  
“That gang you were hired to weed out? I had two of them in my shop today. A man by the name of Jimmy Valmer. A ghoul, really. With prosthetic leg, and friend whose picture is in the paper. You should come get a copy.They just left the city. I suggest you hurry to find them. There’s a fresh trail, and it’ll take the guards a minute to sweep evidence under the rug. If you’re looking for a chance, now’s the time.”  
“Thanks. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Give or take however many super mutants I pass.” David put down his radio receiver and got up, heading towards a mirror in the corner of his room. He was already fully dressed, having slept in his clothes, a white t-shirt with a few holes in it and black, tight fitting pants. He looked at the armor pieces before him. The thick leather chest piece, and the leather arm pads dyed blue, and the steel leg protectors. He took thirty seconds to put each piece on, and then looked at himself in the mirror and told himself, “Don’t fuck this up, asshole.”


	4. David Rodriguez

In the year 2077, a war between China and America came to a head as nukes were dropped across the world. The focus of the nukes was America and China, but the rest of the world wasn’t much better off. The war had come to be as oil was no longer viable as a fuel source. With no fossil fuels, half the world went to hell. The European union destroyed itself, bankrupt, and the middle east no longer had a major product to sell with the world. The few places that made it out of the conflict of war the best off were Australia, which was never hit with bombs, and years before the war, ceased communications with either side of the conflict. Africa as a continent tried to stay out of the conflict, and the Sahara desert most certainly sustained damage during the conflict, but in general, everything further south had, though it had no fuel or connections with the outside world. And for their largest connections to other lands to be across an irradiated desert, it didn’t seem worth the travel to most. But as for the east, the damages were quite incalculable. Hords of new creature spawned on by the irradiation poured into the lands of America. South America's economy and society both crashed with the death of half the world. But south of America, and north of South America, the second largest winner out of the war found time to prepare prior to the war’s final conflict took place.  
Mexico wasn’t involved in the US and China global conflict, no matter how much both sides wanted them to be. America wanted to suck the country on its border dry of all of its resources, like it did Canada before its Annexation into the union. But Mexico refused, and took losses as the US kept threatening their country by pulling out fully of their trade and their economy. China refused to believe they weren’t going to give in to America, and sent threats and small scale attacks. But Mexico stayed fervently looking forward to the safety of its people. The leaders leading up to the war were hated by the people for how they directed what resources they had left prior to the war, and how their world seemed to be falling apart. But for two presidencies prior to the bombs, the leaders of the nation tried to keep in mind what was best for their people. The country focused on how it would keep its people fed, how it would water plants, how it could be self reliant. When the bombs fell in 2077, they were the most prepared nation on Earth, and still ill prepared. They managed to avoid major damages by far, ten nukes having been shot at their country by China, three by America as a final “fuck you for refusing to help us.” Since the nukes are launched out by individuals, someone must have really hated Mexico in one of those missile silos. But Mexico had gotten the necessary equipment to ward off nuclear strikes from one of the last smart men in America, and a man with personal stake in Mexico, one Mr. House. The man had been paid by the Mexican government personally for the design specs on his nuclear deterrent field, one of the highest prices paid to any single party before the war. They pt dozens of the cannon like machines in place across the country, covering as many key points of high population and then spreading them out accordingly. IN the end, one bomb landed in Mexico. The country had one of the few death counts that was calculable. BUt for almost twenty years, its people continued to suffer. Every connection to the outside world was lost. THe people weren’t yet thankful for how their lives weren’t lost until, after twenty years of no irrigation from California, Arizona and Texas, the largest river in the west, the Rio Grande, which was once drained dry by the abuse of it in the states, flowed back down through Mexico, back to the Gulf sea, like it did a hundred years ago. Fresh, clean water poured through the country, and the people thrived, more so than they had since before the war. Crops grew fresh, and people all across Central America were connected once more.  
By the year 2260, the country had its own Xenophobic tendencies. It hadn’t heard major word from America. The one thing for America that ever showed up in Mexico were Super Mutants. They came in drones out of former Texas, killing and eating anyone they found too far north. And so, Mexico assumed they were alone in rebuilding the world, until, at that year I said up there, 2260, the New California Republic made contact with Mexican people. The shock of it made its way straight to the Mexican capital, where a meeting between the two country’s leaders was quickly arranged. The first meeting, the Mexican president could do nothing but express his shock at how the people of America were still there, ad that they weren’t all just those monsters that came over the border every once in awhile. The leader of the NCR wanted to steer the conversation away from his shock, but this was the first interaction with someone outside of Mexico in two hundred years, and the event turned into a bit of an unexpected interview about the history of America and the NCR, broadcast across MExican television, which had viewership higher than any other event since people were still waiting for news after the bombs fell. The people listened to the stories about a man now known as the Vault Dweller, a woman who founded the New California Republic in a town called Shady Sands, and a hero not long past called the Chosen One, who stopped the destruction of Western America, and possibly the rest of the world, once more, ending the masked tyranny of a group known as the Enclave, with help from the NCR, and in return, assisting the NCR back, and how the Vertibird they first came flying to Mexico in on a scouting mission came from that group called the Enclave. It was later that they came to discuss an alliance between the two nations, reestablishing trade.  
After the shock of the first return of government on the North, Mexico was divided over whether it was smart to get reinvolved with anything as shaky as a new government, forty years young. Trade started small, food and clothes. Though Mexico might’ve been advanced by that point technology wise, they weren’t going to give anything they had up to a former America, in case they turned and used it on them later. But Mexico had quite the population by the 2260s. And there were still plenty living in unfortunate positions of poverty and overcrowded cities. And hundreds of people decided to move North. One family, the Rodriguez's, in the year 2268, decided to move from Mexico to America. This proved to be a misstep.  
At the time, the Rodriguez family was Mr and Mrs. rodriguez, their twelve year old son, Arturo, and their two year old son, David. The four of them moved from Mexico to the far off reaches of the Hub. There wasn’t any opportunity for them there. It wasn’t worse than back in Mexico, but infrastructure was such that there wasn’t any vacant buildings in this, one of the largest cities in California that they could take residency in. The place was packed with people like they weren’t expecting. The history they’d learned led them to believe that if this city entirely built from the ground up didn’t have room, it might be more fruitful looking for smaller towns east in NCR territory. The family did just that, ending up as far East as a small town near the then border of NCR territory, Baker. They got a business up and running with notoriety in the area in three years time. But their were some losses in the time they took to get where they were. Mrs. Rodriguez died giving birth to their third child, a girl who was now at the age of one, for lack of a suitable doctor in the area. Fringe towns in the NCR weren’t well stocked enough. And then came the time when they needed more supplies than the isolated location could provide. They were looking for traders who could supply them with their ingredients so that they wouldn’t have to be the ones growing crops for their small restaurant business. Mr. Rodriguez alone couldn’t handle everything necessary for running this family business. He decided to spend time after the loss of his wife searching for cheap help and people who could assist in crop farming. Baker couldn’t get cheap enough labour, nor was there anyone he could afford West. But in the fringe of NCR territory was the promise of people who could want a better lifesyle, and would be willing to take cheap pay for entry into the NCR, somewhere more developed than whatever hovel they were living in out there.  
Across the Mojave desert, a night uninhabited desert filled with creatures of the wastel, in New Vegas, the Rodriguez family experienced the true wasteland. And the Rodriguez’s were shocked enough crossing the Mojave. They’d never before met a radscorpion, or a mole rat. The group had traveled along the I-15 with a squad of NCR soldiers heading towards in to set up an outpost. The four family members made it to Nevada with generally few problems, besides encounters with the creatures. Arturo hid when he heard the shooting, and Mr. Rodriguez covered his child with his body, but no one stopped David from looking on as A group of radscorpions popped out of the ground, creatures as big as the cattle hauling their equipment, with pinsirs as big as David’s head, and were fought off in front of him by the NCR soldiers. The experience shocked him, before a one of the men doing the shooting came up to him afterwards and told him, “I’m sorry you had to see that, kid,” hoisting him up and putting him on the destroyed old car the Brahmin were pulling along, rolling on fixed up tires and filled with all the troop’s gear, “But it can get dangerous in the wastes. And it only gets more dangerous from here. Plenty of people where we’re headed that’ll ty and take your family away from you. I don’t wanna go scaring you, but you gotta be prepared for anything.” The caravan kept moving forward, another soldier trying to pull the young Arturo out from under the brahmin as to not get stepped on, which he did so screaming about the monsters in spanish. “For a family to really stay alive out of NCR territory, they’ve gotta be strong and capable,” He kept explaining as, David watched his brother having a fit, and then looked to his father holding his baby sister, crying.  
Three days into searching for workers throughout the Mojave Wastes for workers, There was the most unfortunate event to befall the Rodriguez family. Mr. Rodriguez and his three children were attacked by the most savage group West of Caesar's Legion, the fiends. A frequent problem in the area, the Fiends wouldn’t be wiped out. They were like the Khans in that sense, except no one had truly tried to take care of them. They were expected to have died out right after showing up twenty years ago, by the way every one of them was remorseless, een to each other and addicted to somewhere between one and all chems. But here they were, thriving and killing. When they attacked the Rodriguez’s, five of them came out of a small building in the dark of night to see the family in front of them walking, confused by the gang. Three of the Fiends started walking towards David and Arturo, the other two stepping to their dad, holding the little Eliza. One of them grabbed Eliza, and Mr. Rodriguez started fighting with them. When he started yelling, the other removed a buck knife and stabbed him in the chest. He let go of his child for a moment, and the man took hold of the baby firmly and walked away from him. Arturo and David were quickly grabbed, before Mr. Rodriguez was stabbed, and they were both kicking and screaming. Daid had been grabbed by the waste, Arturo by the arms. Arturo was dragging his feet, trying to pull himself away, and screaming bloody hell. He was too distracted to see his father get stabbed. But when David saw it happen, staring right at his father get stabbed, and his arms going limp before stepping back, and the man with the baby walking away before being turned away and carried off, he went blank for a minute. He looked at the waist of the man carrying him and saw attached to his belt was a machete. He grabbed the handle, unsheathed it and plunged it into the stomach of the man holding him. He dropped David, and David pulled the blade from him, gutting him and dropping him dead. David turned to the man holding his brother by the arms and chopped one of his arms off, his face being engulfed with tears and rage, the man let go of Arturo and stepped back in pain, grabbing at his stump of an arm before David stabbed at his stomach, and left him dying, running back to his father.  
Arturo watched on as David ran at them, Machete in hand. The man who had stabbed their father once watched as Mr. Rodriguez took out a gun, knocking it out of his face as he shot off two shots.  
David ran to his father’s aid, stabbing another of the attackers, the last one turning to attack him back before being sliced through. The two men fell dead before David, and David turned to his dying father on the ground.  
“Papa!” He called to him. Mr. Rodriguez looked to the sky above him with fear. He had been stabbed twice, the second stab having gone through his stomach and doing serious damage to his organs. He didn’t look down at the wounds, and focused on the face of his son.  
“David,” He said, putting on a smile. “I’m sorry. I failed you. I tried to kill these men, but you had to do it for me. Hehe.”  
“Papa, I’m scared! I-I didn’t to… I don’t know what I’ve done!”  
“Listen, listen, David.” Mr. Rodriguez took hold of his son’s shoulders with both arms. He delivered his final words in spanish, “You did good. You will always do good. There are bad people in this world. I… I’ve realized this. It was my mistake to bring us here. I wasn’t strong enough. You be strong. Like Rodriguezes before you. Protect what matters most in this world. I… Love you.” Mr. Rodriguez died in the wastes of the Mojave, outside New Vegas.  
While David was watching his father’s last moments, he was imagining Arturo was behind him saing his baby sister. Unfortunately, after David killed the capturer of his brother, Arturo only lied on the ground, stunned, before the last Fiend placed the baby Eliza in Arturo’s lap and pointed a gun at his head. “You, hold the baby. We’re walking.” And Arturo got up and walked off with the cannibal Fiend, holding his baby sister. David was left crying over his father, thinking he had to search his father for a gun if he really wanted to make it out of there alive. Mr. Rodriguez had a pack of supplies strapped to his waist. David grabbed the strap of the bag and pulled it off of his father. He then sat there and went through the bag before finding his father’s revolver he held it loosely in both hands before turning back to where he expect to see his brother and and Sister waiting, his brother having killed the last of the fiends. But the both of them were gone with the last fiend.  
David was let alone and scared on the outskirts of New Vegas. At that time, New Vegas was just starting up as a community, and couldn’t be ensured to provide safety, securitron robots rolling around the outskirts, taking care of anyone who’d dare go near. The gangs that were left pushed out were deadly, including the Great Khans, and the chem addicted fiends he’d already met. But any number of smaller time tribals were lurking the outskirts, and would make a meal out of a young boy like David if he let them. But he refused that fate. David measured every step he took, creeping deeper into the heart of the Mojave. David didn’t have anywhere in mind he was headed. He was just moving forward. Whenever he ran into someone, he’d crawl over to them and stab them in the back. Three times, he ran into groups of three or more, scouring the broken city. Most of them wielded nothing but pool cues or shovels to swing around, but so in a fight with three strung out junkies, one of which already had a knife in their back whenever they noticed him, David had quite the advantage. He was South East of the Striip when he met the first group with their own guns. He saw one of them with a laser gun. He stopped his slow crouch walking upon recognizing it to be a dangerous weapon. He couldn’t see anyone else nearby. David took the time while standing there unseen to look around. He was wrong, seeing a second armed hand nearby. He was only barely visible from inside a nearby building. There might be more of them in that building, David thought to himself. He was holding his dad’s gun in his hand, but decided it would be stupid to fire it at the one man in front of him if there were more that he coudn’t see. Potentially more bullets needed than he had. But he was staring at this one man already. How could he have not seen him? David slowly lowered himself to the ground, putting his gun in the sack he’d taken from his father, and than moving backwards. There was a more intact building to his left that he could go around and reposition himself if he could just slip away. He moved slowly, as best he could not to be seen. The man David was hiding from looked about, but could see nothing under the cover of night. The Fiend then turned to his friends. “Hey!” He called to them, seeing one of them looking like he was eating. David stopped. He’d made it far, fast. Had he moved too fast and gotten himself seen? David’s breath stopped. “What are you got!?” The man yelled in a half sentence.  
“NOTHIN’! FUCKOFF MY DICK ABOUT IT!” shouted one of the other Fiend members from inside the building.  
“NAH NAH, YOU GOT SOMETHIN’, I WANT MY PART, BITCH!” And the man walked towards the building, stepping out of sight. When David failed to see anyone who could possibly see him, he took a deep and choppy breath in, sucking up some dirt, before getting on his knees, taking a last long look, and running for the building to his left.   
David made his way around the building to its far left. When he made it to be able to look out and see back into the building where the fiends were gathered. He crouched back to the ground and moved as precautiously as he could to avoid being seen. David waited one minute after making it past the building before running fast and far.  
The next time David stopped was in front of some strange walled off buildings. David looked at the wall and moved towards to take a seat and stop for a minute. The sun was beginning to rise. David could see its warm glow after his long night and looked down at his hands. He held the machete he’d taken. He lightly placed the blade to his forehead and let himself start to cry. He wasn’t sure how long he sat there before he suddenly heard the screeching of a steel door being pushed open off to his right. David looked to see the door as it was swinging open, his grip tightening on his machete, pushing his back against the steel wall and sliding into a crouched position. A grumbly, crumbling voice called out to him from the other side of the wall. “Whoever is out there, I mean you know harm. If you’ve come here looking for help, then we’ll ask that you don’t go flaunting any weapons you’ve got, and kindly allow you entrance.” the young David stayed on guard. From behind the door stepped out a rotting corpse of a man, skin flakey and appearing to be burned off in places. David froze at the sight. The man turned to David and spoke again in a voice that sounded like he had smoker’s lung. “Hey, kid, you alright?” The man stepped further out from behind the door and stood facing David maybe fifteen feet away. He had a gun holstered at his belt. “Are you injured? You're covered in a lot of blood, do you need medical assistance?”  
“What are you?” David asked the man, paralyzed.  
“I’m a member of the followers of the apocalypse. It’s an organization intending to help those in need.” The man looked at the scared expression David had, and down at his arms as they were exposed from his short sleeve t shirt. “Oh. I’m also what people call a ghoul. There’s nothing to worry about. I’m fully conscious, I won’t bite.” david’s face changed to reflect a questioning look. “Look, there are maybe half a dozen people inside, all of them are either too sick or strung out to be of any threat. I can promise you safety, and I can clean the blood off o’ you, if you want, too.”  
David looked at the man offering help and fell to his knees, eyes watering. “They killed my papa!” He cried out to the man.  
The Follower of the apocalypse sat down with David and listened to his story as he cleaned him of blood and gave him a meal. “It can be hell out there, id. I’m sorry to hear of your loss.”  
“D-Do you know where my siblings are?”  
“I don’t know. It sounds like they were taken by the fiends. I can’t help you with that. I’ve gotta hold down this fort. But there is someone here who might be able to help you. An NCR soldier. Got lost while scouting New Vegas. Was attacked by fiends. Made it here, where I gave him medical assistance. Heading back to Boulder City, where more of his are waiting. If you’re wanting someone who can help, a couple soldiers would be a safe bet.”  
David was guided to a tent nearby after the friendly ghoul helped clean him up. Making their way to the front of the tent, a man walked out, and to his surprise, he recognized him. It was the man who’d protected him and his family on their way to the Mojave. The soldier turned to see David and gave him a “Hey, I remember you,” as a greeting.  
The ghoul, who happened to be named Bert Gunnarsson, started to talk the NCR soldier through what had been happening, “Sir, this boy could use your help He’s lost his family. His father is dead. There isn’t much I can do for him, but I think you could bring him somewhere safer than-”  
“I tried to do what you said,” David cut into the conversation. “I tried being brave and protecting my family. But I failed. And now my family is gone. Help me.”  
The soldier looked down to David, and then back up to Bert, and then took a deep breath before leaning down to David, “Alright,” He spoke to him on his level, “Tell me what happened.”  
And once again, David told the tale of the night, this time in greater depth, recalling every Fiend he ran into and everyone he’d killed. When he was done, the soldier just stared at him through a pair of sunglasses his eyes couldn’t be made out through. His face didn’t move much, either, so there was no indication of to how he was feeling during David’s story. The man got up from his knee and looked back down to David, the six year who had run halfway across New Vegas. “Alright, son. Do you remember where your family was taken?”  
“Y-yes.”  
“Alright, then, if you could point to it on a map of the area, I can scope out the territory, and I’ll try and will find who did this. If it’s not too late, I’ll bring back your brother and sister alive, but I should warn you, some groups in the area can be quite… Brutal.”  
David looked up at the man that towered above him, and without fear in his voice, told him, “I’m going with you.”  
The man looked down at David for a moment. “No your not.”  
“My papa, I want to bury him. I want to help save my family. I can’t fail them again.”  
“Y’know, it might serve your family better if you just stayed alive for a while longer, and let an adult handle this.”  
“You told me to be strong. I’m going to be strong, right now.”  
The soldier and David stared at each other intently for about a minute before the soldier responded, “Alright, fine.”  
Bert cut back into the conversation, “Wait, what did you just say?”  
“I said fine,” He repeated himself  
“You can’t be serious. You’re not gonna take a child out into the ruins, are you?”  
“Kid wants to party, who am I to stop him. Besides, he’ll be out on his own, sometime. Better he goes with someone experienced then run off on his own.”  
“That is a terrible justification.”  
“Too late to stop it, now though.”  
“No it’s not, in fact, I’m stopping you, right now!” Bert told him, pointing at him angrily.  
“Right.” And with that, the soldier took David by his hand and walked backwards away from his angry point. Bert did nothing to stop them.  
The two of them made it back across the ruins to where Mr Rodriguez had died. Upon seeing the dead bodies, the trained Ranger was shocked. “Man. You weren’t lying, kid. You really did kill them all.”  
David went to his father’s side, as the ranger looked over his shoulder. “I ain’t got a shovel,” the soldier cruelly joked. David immediately began digging at the side of the old, worn road with his hands. Watching this, the soldier gave out a huff, “Alright,” And joined David on the side of the road, digging in the dirt with his hands. It took maybe an hour to clear out a hole, during which time they weren’t interrupted. The soldier lifted Mr. Rodriguez by the arms, hoisting him off the ground and carrying him to the hole they’d dug. They then spent another half hour filling the hole back up, and then standing over the grave, the soldier looked to David and then to the brown lump in the soil, decided to give some final words.   
After a moment of silence with heads bowed and eyes shut, the soldier turned back to the scene of the murder and kidnapping. “Alright,” He began to think. “These other dead are wearing the armor of the Fiends.” He stated.  
“Fiends?” David questioned.  
“Chem fiends. Drug addicts.”  
“Oh. What does that mean?”  
The soldier looked down at the six year old. “Another time. When you’re older. For now, we’ve got an idea. As I’ve seen it, Fiends have a big base in McCarran Airport, but there’s more than I could handle alone in there.”  
“What are we gonna do?” David asked.  
“Figure it out by the time we’re there. I’ve got a pretty good idea. We’re gonna press on, for now. Let’s go, kid.”  
About another two hours later, at Mccarran Airport, the ranger and David sat inside the gates of the terminal. The airport was large, and the field was relatively empty. There were a scant few distant tents in front of the airport entrance, but they could just walk right into the raider den without getting stopped. “Get down.” the Ranger demanded of David. David quickly lied on his stomach on the ground. The Ranger sat down cross legged next to David. David took the opportunity to look the Ranger over. He stuck out amongst everyone else he had met in his three years on consciousness, if for nothing else than his armor. It was a hard looking metal shaded deep brown, covering his chest, shoulders and legs. It was the armor of NCR rangers used for patrolling the Mojave. HIs had a knife strapped to the chest, and a bullet tied by rope to the left arm, nailed on at the shoulder. His hat was like that of a cowboy with it’s large brim blocking the sun out from his face. The man had a dark skin tone, and looked to have been through the wringer more than once, indicated by the injuries he’d seemed to have sustained, visible from his face alone, an old deep stab and a poorly healed patch of skin on his cheek and a mark disappearing under his armor. “What’s your name, kid?” the soldier asked.  
“D-David,” He told him. The soldier was going over his weapons at the front of the gate. He was expecting more opposition when they entered, but upon seeing the state of the field, reevaluated his weapons. “Wuh…” David looked at the man’s gun of choice. He had a fancy laser rifle, having been modded with a focus optics and a scope, folded up. He sat deciding through different ammo cells. “What is your name?”  
The soldier packed in an energy cell and folded down the scope, looking off into the distance. “The name’s Grover. Ranger Grover,” He told him, and holstered his gun at his back, pulling a revolver from another holster at his leg and preparing himself.  
“I’ve never fired a gun,” David told him, staring at the weapon Grover held, and looking down into his bag and pulling out his own gun.  
Grover looked down at David looking at his gun. “Then don’t. Never waste a bullet.”  
David took in what he said once more, and pulled the Machete out of a loop in the belt straps of his blue jeans, holding it with both hands. Ranger Grover looked down at David holding his Machete, ready to fight. “No. Alright, how ‘bout this,” The man got on one knee and pulled almost out of thin air a revolver bigger than the one he was already holding. In addition to being bigger, this revolver had a scope on top. “Take this. If you wanna make it through here, know how to shoot.” He pulled out three pre loaded replacement clips to quickly reload with. “This should be enough for any good soldier. There shouldn’t be too many in the field, so you’re gonna clear the field. I’ll back you up if we get in any trouble.”  
Crawling ahead, there were maybe a dozen Fiends littering the airfield. They weren’t smart enough to see them, yet, amazingly. David had the fancy scoped revolver in his hands. He looked it over once more. A six shot. He put the butt of the gun against the ground and held it with both hands. He pulled the scope right up against his eye, but the ranger took hold of the scope and pulled it further from his face. “This is going to kickback. It might be a little intense, so make sure you have a steady grip.” David glanced at the soldier net to him looking straight head with his own gun. He looked back through his scope He had a fiend in his sights. David tried lifting the gun and his hands slightly off the ground to get his head in the gun’s reticles He thought he had him in his sights. He closed his eyes and tried to pull the trigger, but couldn’t. He opened his eyes to see the ranger’s fingers stopping his. “Look where you’re shooting, even after you’ve fired, or else you’re going to miss. Got it?” Grover removed his fingers, nd David stopped to think his shot through. He recentered his eyes on the Fiend, raised his gun closing one eye and looking through the scope to see the raider lined up with his shot. “And squeeze, don’t pull. That seems like something I should say.” David squeezed down on the trigger, and a bullet flew. The gun swung up violently, but David held on, looking from behind his arm in front of his face as the fiend was knocked to the ground. David was shocked, getting to one knee.  
“What are you doing, kid!?” the soldier gave a whisper yell, as fiends immediately spotted him. David removed himself from the moment of shock, to see another Fiend, one with a fancy tommy gun. David raised his gun to him and fired. The bullet flew through the man, sending him down. The soldier got up and fired twice. David turned and looked where he was firing. There were two men down, and more coming from the middle. He raised and fired, knocking him back down off his feet. They’d cleared half the field when a group of men came up with assault weapons, openfring. The ranger put a hand on David’s shoulder and pushed him off to the right, towards the door of the building. The whole camp was filled with trash, so there was ample room for them to hide, but as it turned out, there were more raiders hiding, or maybe hung over or sleeping in the piles of trash, nd they were drawn out by the sound of gun fire. The number of fiends grew to make up for those they’d lost, and all of them had guns. One leading the charge had armor fancier than the spare tires and scrap metal the rest had strapped to them, all metal, and with a skull for a cod piece, the centerpiece of an abrasively under dressed crotch.   
This man shouted out orders to the drones, “Get up, dumbasses! We’ve got some new dumbasses I’m gonna want! I see one of them is young! I’ll want them both alive, so the older can watch!”   
“That doesn’t sound good,” Observed the ranger, as he and David hid behind the wrecked hull of an airplane lying perpendicular to the building. He continued to guide David away from the front of the building, heading towards the rear.  
“What are we doing?” David asked.  
“Running. But only for a minute. Remember that call I made an hour ago?”  
“Uhhh… Yes?” David pretended.  
“Well, if things go how I’d have liked them to, we should have a cavalry ready.” tghe soldier pulled from his belt a large, over encumbering walkie talkie. “Hey, Sergeant, you ready?”  
“Please, if you’re going to use the radio, talk like a professional,” Came a voice through the device. David was confused by the thing.  
“Right. WEll, I’ve just got a park full of fiends chasing after me, so, sorry to forget protocol.”  
“God damn it, this was a dumb idea to go charging in like this.” Complained grover’s accomplice.  
“Fuck off, Lowenthal, and just do as I said. I’m taking them around back, now.”  
The man gave a sigh and told him, “Understood. Over and out.”  
From the front gate stormed in a legion of NCR troops, looking out upon an empty field. Two hours ago, grover had called for backup to meet at the Fiend’s holdout at McCarran, with a plan for them in order. The group of ten split into two, and one headed for the doors of the airport, the rest heading around back.  
Behind the airport, a second group of fiends that were around back had joined with the twelve, nine by the time they were in back, and were banging on the terminal entrance of the facility. On the other side of the door, Grover and David sat in a cannibalistic hall of meat mounted to the walls and hung from the ceiling. This was David’s first encounter with overwhelming gore and filth, commonplace in the wastes. When Grover first walked into the room and barricaded the door with his body, he got a good view of the decorum. It was true, the Fiends were cannibals, he thought. Men of the NCR who had gone missing searching the city might be strung from these walls. Grover looked down to David, standing in the center of the room and thought, shit, and across the room, scooping him off the floor and towards the other side of the room. Bursting through the next door, shoulder first, he heard the sound of men screaming at him from behind. He once again slammed his body against the steel door, placing DAvid on the ground. “Alright, kid. I’m, uhh. Sorry you had to see that.”  
“Were those? Those…” David was looking at the ground, scared.  
“Yeah. I know this was probably bad idea to have brought you here, but you’ve proved more useful than I could have imagined. I’ve known people who’ve gone through full training who couldn’t pick up firing a gun like you did. That’s, um. That’s my attempt to show sympathy. This is my first time spending time with a kid your age, ya gotta understand.” Grover felt himself being pushed forward as raiders banged against the door from the other side. David just looked down at the floor. Grover stared at David. For some reason, he had come in here having expected the boy to die fast, and couldn’t explain what it was that made him okay with that. Grover reached out to David and grabbed him by the hand, pulling him close. David fell onto Grover’s chest, and Grover gave him a hug. “Alright, how ‘bout this, kid. I’m gonna make this better. You just wait here for a minute, and when I come back, things will be better.”  
“Will my family be back?” David asked.  
Grover didn’t look down at David. “I can only hope. Wait in the corner. When the door opens, if the person on the other side doesn’t announce themself before you see them, feel free to shoot them.” GRover let go of David who crawled off his chest and looked him in the eye one more time. Grover didn’t express much emotion, looking bored from the time David had met him until now. His calm face eased the situation. David walked to the corner and pressed his back to the wall. Grover cleared his breathing, and with a hand on the knife of his armor, let the men pushing the door open behind him bring him to his feet, lifting his gun to them and shooting four times, moving out of David’s view. David waited, listening to the sound of gunfire. The guns were cut into by the sound of men’s screaming, the familiar scream of the one well dressed Fiend with the skull cod piece. The door burst open at one point, and out stepped the man, who continued to shout obscenities and orders to men being cut apart. He turned for a moment to see David in the corner, gun already pointed at his head, and was raising his gun to fire first, but was too late, as David blasted him in the head. The bullet flew through his eye, and David watched the man fall to the ground. He’d been shot in the shoulder while he was in the room, it had made it through his armor, David thought maybe he was running away so he could live. The door slammed back shut. David looked at the body on the ground. At the age of six, David came to comprehend death and loss.   
When the shooting stopped, the door opened and Grover called out, “You alright out there, Kid?” and after a moment of silence, crept out from behind the door to peek and see if David was still waiting in the corner. “He’s alright,” he called back into the room, nd with that, four soldiers walked out from behind him.  
One of them got a look at the boy in front of them and threw up their hands in protest, “Wait, who is this?”  
“This is the kid I mentioned.” Grover explained.  
“When you said kid, I thought you had meant someone in, like their teens or early wentyies, not an actual kid! Why would you bring someone so young onto the field of battle!?” Grover’s fellow soldier questioned him. “Like, this has no excuse!”  
“Yeah, in post, this doesn’t seem too smart, but don’t worry about it. Right now, let’s just finish clearing this place out.”  
Grover turned his back to Lowenthal, who only grew angrier from his being blown off. “Alright, David. You’re back with me We’re going to finish this.” David looked up to Grover and nodded.  
The two units of NCR were able to meet up in the middle of the airport, the squad that had come in through the front having lost three men holding off the raiders inside. In total, almost sixty fiends had died in the small battle over McCarran airport, and any that were left alive went running. The facility was large and offered plenty of protection and resources, having taken it with only three losses proved to be a fair price. Holding an outpost in the center of the city might prove difficult, as Sergeant Lowenthal pointed out, but with Mr. House’s roots fighting back raiders on the outside would make this settlement easier to hold, if only Mr. House wouldn’t eventually come attacking them, as well. The troopers began to sweep the facility for more fiends, but found that the second terminal of the airport was instead filled with more food kept by the cannibals fresh. A sort of a jail holding fifteen civilians, captured in the Mojave. Among them was Arturo Rodriguez. But upon being reunited, the horrified Arturo had to tell of how Eliza had been taken by the raiders on his arrival, and him tossed in a cell with a dozen former raiders being held captive and ghouls too unsavory to eat. He was going to be eviscerated when they were done with Eliza. Hearing about his sister’s death, David was spiralling, having failed to save another member of his family.   
Grover, David, Arturo and the fellow soldiers, along with the three Ghouls having been kept in the cell were sitting in the Airport burger stop, eating some of the food stored there by the Fiends, some fresh vegetables and a couple crams. The Ghouls that had been kept there had been starved and were happy to receive a meal, and all too thankful to the NCR for saving them. Grover was watching David silently collapse in front of him as he chewed on the slab of meat he’d gotten out of the two hundred year old Cram box. David fell to his knees in front of him upon hearing about his sister’s death, and yet Grover continued to stare, still confused by why he didn’t care whether the boy lived or died. He looked down at the slab of mystery meat in his hand and decided that it tasted disgusting, tossing it onto a plate that hadn’t been cleaned in two hundred years and moving down to David on the ground and putting a hand on his back to offer sympathy.  
ON that day, Grover decided to take on watching over David and Arturo. The three of them, along with the Ghouls and other NCR started a camp in McCarran calling in for more troops and resources. The first year of McCarran went by pretty fast, as the Camp grew along with the Mojave around it. Mr House and the NCR formed an alliance, and the Legion made themselves more well known in the West. McCarran airport became a key NCR encampment, growing to be a fortified stronghold in the center of the city. And a for David, Grover had taken him on as an assistant he was personally training to become a well rounded person and soldier. Grover had seen the special talent David had with wielding a gun or a knife. A natural born fighter, empowered by the desire to protect those he cares about.  
Over the course of years, David and Grover grew together, as the Ranger and his personal apprentice trained and traveled the waste together. Grover had an obsession with trying to kill himself before meeting David, and with time, David grew to care about Grover, and was inspired to keep him alive. Grover trained David with weapons, hand to hand combat, armed combat, survival and many other important fields for staying alive as a Ranger scout. Grover ranked high in the NCR forces and was able to do as he pleased as long as he was upholding and enforcing the laws of the Government, which he also taught to David. Both the Rodriguez boys were educated in Math, science and Speech to NCR standards, as well, (which would be about a twenty five out of a hundred). Arturo took to running the food storage and cafeteria, which he did not enjoy. He was almost eighteen and had lost almost everything in his life, his home in Mexico, his parents, his sister, and after this all, he came to be inducted into the military, and his little brother seemed to have lost nothing to him. He was so young, he was already starting to lose his Spanish. He could hear it when he spoke. And when they talked together, David would not know words he was saying, sometimes only knowing the english instead. All because they had come to this horrible country. And it was Arturo who was forced to hand over his baby sister to those cannibals. Arturo felt cut off from those around him, and as such, thought there was nothing for him here. But he couldn’t leave. He was scared that he would die if he left the compound without any NCR, but they wouldn’t guide him outside their territory.  
More years went by. David was a boy of eleven whose aim was better than any of the regular soldiers. He could handle anything with ease, but had a preference for the gun of his father. He kept such as a memento, as he did the hat of Grover and the necklace of his mother’s. He stood out among the troops with a quiet confidence in his abilities and an unnatural talent in combat. One that had blossomed with practice was his ability to stay hidden. Grover and David functioned well with David watching Grover’s back. In five years, David had racked up 40 kills, mostly raiders, three Legionaries. He didn’t wear the number with Pride, he remembered it as a sign of respect for the dead. At eleven, David knew not to let death take him. Every person killed had a life like David that hd brought them to this point, but when he pulled that trigger, he did so believing the people he shot were a danger.   
Around this time, in the year 2277, a war between the NCR and the Legion was coming to a head. Every available NCR in the Arizona was called into combat, including Ranger Grover. David wanted to go with his commander, but Grover denied him, and David was one of ten men left at McCarran Airport when the first Battle for Hoover Dam was fought. David waited with baited breath for the return of the soldiers from Hoover, believing with all his heart that the NCR would crush the Legion. After three days of fighting, and dozens of injured soldiers showing up at McCarran, there was word of the victory at Hoover. David was excited by the news, but was left waiting for Grover’s return. Another four days past before David recieved the do tags of ranger Grover. He was the closest person to Grover, and was the only one to take them. Grover received his recognition along with all those lost in the fight. In the aftermath of Hoover Dam, David was lost. He didn’t have someone to go out on missions with anymore, and no one training him. He’d failed to protect another person close to him, and because of such, shut down again. David spent three months in shock while camp McCarran turned into an injury ward. After that time, he left Camp McCarran and relocated to a base further East to Camp Forlorn hope, rightfully named, to try and continue his training, but no one would take in a child of only 12 to train. David came to realize people viewed Grover as crazy to take in someone so young for training, and occasionally, David would attack those who insulted his former commander. Sometimes he’d win, sometimes he’d lose. One time, he tried attacking one of the Rangers who’d insulted him, and found himself pinned to the ground. David was struggling to get free when the ranger whispered in his ear, “Look, if you really want to honor Grover’s legacy, then going and attacking his fellow soldiers isn’t the best idea. For now, just… Don’t get yourself killed. Find somewhere to settle down for a while.”  
“I’m Twelve!!! What do you mean settle down!?” David asked this soldier in an aggressive whisper.  
“I mean… We can’t train a child. Just…”  
“I have no money. I have no home. My brother has been at Camp McCarran for four years. He’s all I have left, and yet he talks about leaving.” David anger was folding into sadness. “I don’t know if I can stop him from leaving. I don’t know if I want to go with him, too. I don’t know what’s left for me, here. And the NCR is shunning me. My home, since I was a baby. They’re treating me like a criminal.”  
The Ranger held David to the ground. From where she sat on him, she watched as his face cracked into sadness. “Look, kid, I-I’ve lost family, too. A lot of us soldier’s have. But… You’ve gotta… hold on to what’s important in this life.”  
David thought back to his father, dying in his small hands. “That’s what my father told me. Those were his last words. Hold on to what is important in this world.”  
The Ranger got off of David’s back and helped him up. The ranger introduced herself, and recommended if he needed a place to stay, he could find shelter working with the Follower’s of the Apocalypse in freeside, and told him they could help him further.  
David went to the Followers along with Arturo, based in Freeside, right outside the New Vegas Strip. New Vegas had become a major attraction since the Raiders had been cleared or “turned over a new leaf.” David got a lot of work helping protect the Followers, after having displayed his talents as a guard, and Arturo got work helping the doctors and trading. After so much time working trade and supplies heading through McCarran, Arturo had a particular talent at bargaining and talking with people. Their time with the Follower’s wasn’t long, less than a year. He’d learned to put on a face for those he worked with, and became well liked around New Vegas. Popularity among the people didn’t make him want to leave any less. He was now a man of twenty three, still living under the same shitty NCR rule along with his brother, an NCR wannabe. And so, one day, Arturo told David that he was leaving in three days and leaving NCR territory. He didn’t give him a reason, he didn't’ give him an option, he just gave him this information and let it sit.  
Three days later, with some work put in, David and Arturo left New Vegas in the year 2279, along with a second guard, a doctor wanting to head west, an assortment of medical supplies, and armed to the teeth.  
The four of them made it far outside New Vegas, heading North Around the Legion, moving along the edges of their territory, where they might find only occasional scouts or tribals. The group made their way to the lands free of both Casar and the NCR, mostly ruled by various Tribes of Central America. The largest of these tribes was a group known as the Luddites, that held a land stretching along the northern border of the Legion to the eastern river lying across almost all of America, the Mississippi. Upon making it to this territory, David, Arturo and the member of the Followers were stopped by Luddites tribals.  
Before them, the tribe looked funny in their makeshift armour, all made from the torn up parts of old world clothes and cars. The had face paint and darkened skin from exposure to the sun. “Halt!” The Luddites called out to them, as they stood in front of the armed group with their strange weapons made from more trashed old world tech, slingshots, bows and arrows and the tribal standard tomahawk their leader held. “Why have you come to our lands!?” He asked, with strange pronunciation of his words, a unique tone created over generations of this new collective group.  
Arturo stepped out from behind David “We’re looking to travel across the country. This is the best route to avoid the Legion. We mean you no harm, we just wish to pass through.”  
The man raised his Tomahawk to point over to Arturo, “If you wish to cross these lands, you must abandon all weapons of the old world, and factory made medicines.”  
“What!?” The Follower of the Apocalypse, a man named Gregory cried out, steping forward, his guard Christophe moving forward with him. “You’d have us abandon our medicine?” He reiterated their requests to them, shocked by their requests. “What would happen if one of us were to become sick or injured?”  
“You will trust in our healing powders!” The Luddite told him, now aggravated by his lack of respect for their ways. “We are reasonable people. If you respect our ways, we will let you pass without harm, but if you dare to challenge us and our beliefs, then we will show you no remorse! These are the ways of the world.   
“But that’s absurd! No one would so willingly abandon their weapons to a group of Tribals.”   
“People have before. And you’d be wise to do so, as well. If we weren’t to hold onto these beliefs, then we’d have nothing. There can be no exceptions, and especially not to those who come demanding respect while showing none. You presume yourself smarter than us, yet everything you have was made by those who came before you. We have built everything we have!”  
David stepped forward, “We are sorry to show you such disrespect. We will do what we can to honor your ways.”  
The second guard to Gregory’s left looked to David, then to the Luddites. “No, fuck that. They’re scared of our weapons. They know they couldn’t stand against us with their sticks. Culture is bullshit, in this world, the strong need to learn to survive. We can cut through your territory if we need.”  
“Cristophe!” Gregory yelled at him, “We don’t threaten! We’ll do what we always do, enlighten these uninformed fools. We can show you the power of the medicine you’ve left behind! Please, if you’ll show us to the many sick that must be suffering, we can truly show something amazing!”  
The luddites looked to each other once more. David glared back at Cristophe,., the fool getting them in over their heads. This could end poorly if he didn’t intervene. David raised his hands to the air as a means of surrender, and waas prepared to call uncle when the Luddite commander stepped forward himself, raising a opened palm to David, ignoring his surrender for the moment, pointing down Cristophe with his club. “You.” He called out to him in a calm voice. Cristophe glared about nervously. “I challenge you to a duel. Right now. Your fancy old world weapons,” He turned his club away to hold it up on display, “Against my club. Do you dare try me?”  
Cristophe gave a noticeable gulp, a moment of fear visible by with three frantic blinks, before covering fear with anger.  
“Fine,” Cristophe agreed to his challenge. “When and where?” He asked.  
“Right now. Right here. First one to die loses this duel.”  
Cristophe twitched his lip, and a scoff, “You’ll die by the time I raise my gun.”  
“I believe in my abilities.” There were several feet between them, there was no way the tribal could run the distance shut.  
“Fine.” Cristophe and the man didn’t move, and neither gave a suggestion that they were going to call draw. They just stared. Cristophe didn’t know what to do. “What are you waiting for!?” He asked, deeply confused.  
“Anytime you are ready, you may try and shoot me,” The man explained to him. He was waiting for Cristophe.  
Cristophe was caught off guard. He didn’t imagine there was a chance he could attack him from that far. What was his plan? Dodge the bullet? He had thirty more in the chamber, in addition to being humanly impossible. Cristophe was now hesitating. He gave a twitch of his trigger finger, but then psyched himself back into what was happening. Christophe quickly raised his gun to a point at the man, but, witout turning away, found that the man’s club was already two thirds the distance from his face. The Luddite had thrown it the instant he saw Cristophe move, like a baseball player of old, with greater efficiency. The club hit Cristophe in the nose, shattering his face. He lost his sight for a moment, and stumbled backwards. He didn’t realize as the gun was being grabbed at by the man who’d come to be in front of him in his confusion, and took it from him by force, tossing it aside and grabbing the club he’d hurdled from the ground. Christophe opened his eyes, feeling his face with his hands, and seeing his gun on the ground. He stumbled one step forward before he was hit at the back of his head to the ground, another large crack in his skull. The Luddite stood over Cristophe on the ground, not gloating or reveling in the man’s quick defeat, uncaring as the new judge of his fate, raising his club to end the life of his defeated in what was a merciful death for one so heavily injured.  
The man was prepared to swing down when he was halted at over his head by someone holding him back. “What are you doing!?” called out Gregory, “You disgusting monster, show mercy!” Gregory cried, holding him back from his final blow.  
“That was my intention,” The man told Gregory. David looked at his Follower companion and then to the Cristophe on the ground, twitching, near death, his head partially caved in. David had picked up Gregory and Christophe because no one else from the followers were wonting to go further. Follower members were slim, and there was much work to be done where they were in Freeside. When he first met Gregory, about a month after arriving in Freeside, He realized that he seemed cocky about how smart he was, and despite being with a charitable organization as he was, couldn’t help but brag about himself to the people he helped, while insulting them likewise about how “If only they’d had the good fortune to join the Follower’s when they were young like he did,” Or something along those lines. He was cocky and arrogant. NOt someone he’d want to travel halfway across the continent with, for certain. But at least he’d had his little mole rat, Christophe. The way Christophe talked about the wastes, and how unfortunate he was to live in them, he seemed to revel in making himself out to be a hardened badass who’d made it through so much , while having spent eighteen years living in a lower class squalor with some other orphans around the western side of Freeside, having formed a two bit gang that would shake people down for money. He knew this having gone with Grover through that part of New Vegas with Ranger Grover while he was meeting up with an old friend he wasn’t allowed to see him drinking with, and had to wait outside, with the advice not to get mugged. David had taken that advice, and when Christophe tried to mug him, he kicked his and his gang’s asses. He thought this kind of thing might result, but he didn’t expect things would end like this.  
David walked passed Gregory nd the Luddite, fighting over his club, the Luddite suddenly throwing Greg over his shoulder, Daid ignoring it to look down at Christophe, his eye twitching. As the Luddite tried taking hold of both of Gregory’s hands with one of his, wrestling his club from him, David unsheathed a long blade of bone, crouching down to Cristophe and placing it on his temple. During their fighting, as the strong Tribal warrior forced the club out of Gregory’s grip, both of the young boy’s hand clasped together, wooden mace raised to the air, the two of them suddenly noticed David’s actions, and stopped to watch him end Christophe’s life himself. The both of them stared on, as well as Arturo and the rest of the Tribals, Arturo maybe the least surprised by David’s actions, having watched him from the moment he stepped forward and understanding what and why. Gregory was released, hands falling to the ground to prop himself up. The Luddite stared at David as he rose up, his strange bone buckknife in his right hand. David raised the blade for display, “I made this knife myself out of a bighorner.” He told him. “It is like your club. I will keep this. As for the rest of our pre war weaponry, we will discard of it, same with the medicine. All we want is to pass through your lands. No more fighting.”  
The Luddite considered what he said, turning his body to face David fully, “That man was not your responsibility.”  
“I’m sorry, you were distracted. I wanted to end this without more unnecessary deaths.”  
“We could have saved him, you murderer!” Greggory cried in vain to David.  
“No, you couldn’t have not even with our fancy pre war medicine,” David told Gregory, insulting him to further sympathize with the Luddites.   
The Luddite leader raised his club, it having the splatter of Christophe’s blood on it. David looked in fear at the club. This man could throw that club with enough precision to get the handle through David’s eyes. David took a moment to be scared for his eyes, then his life. The man flicked the club downwards, sprawing blood off of it. “You may pass through our lands, if you respect our desires. What you do with your weapons is for you to decide, as long as they do not reside on our lands. You may also bury your ally, if that is what you desire.”  
David and arturo buried the weapons and medicine in the grave with Cristophe while Gregory mourned, taking the time to insult and cuss out David for being a murderer. With the grave finished, with final words said, and with Gregory having walked away from the two counterparts he was now disgusted with, David and Arturo continued to look down at the grave with their hands in their pockets. Arturo spoke without looking up to David. “You did the right thing,” He said in Spanish. “It, um. Look, I’m sorry I’m always a asshole. I know that kind of thing shouldn’t pass out here in this world. We’re siblings, we stick together. But it has been eating at me for a while. When I told you I was leaving in three days, I honestly didn’t think you’d come with me. I know it’s only been a week and a half, but I’ve realised, I’ve been pretty selfish. I’m lucky to have had you protecting me for all these years. I’m the older one, I should’ve been looking after you. It makes me think… I’m sorry I’m such a coward. If you weren’t here, I couldn't possibly get anywhere outside of New Vegas. I could barely make it on the strip!”  
David looked down at the grave. “I’m worried I’m losing something out here,” David told his brother, returning in Spanish, as well. Arturo cocked his head just enough to see all David in his peripheral. “I killed Christophe because it meant the rest of us could move on easily. Christophe was a friend. And I killed him without thinking about how he was feeling in that moment. I think I might be numb to murder.”  
As David finished talking, arturo looked back down to the grave. “Christophe was already gone. You could have killed that tribal just as easily. He had his back to you, He wouldn’t have noticed. Gregory was fighting for keeping a brain dead body dragging around with us.”  
David stared at the grave. “Maybe we should talk about this later. I’m not sure it’s wise to be saying these things while the dead is still present.”  
“Good point.” Arturo turned away from the body, but before returning to the waiting Luddites and Gregory, he put a hand on David’s shoulder. “Look, whatever you think, you should know… You’re my brother. And I’m happy to have you protecting me. I, um… I’ll return this favor, someday. I promise you.” David removed from the holster at his side the last weapon that needed to be taken care of. His father’s pistol. He sat down above the grave, and began to disassemble the weapon. When he went to return to his group, he had only the hilt of the gun left.  
“I’m keeping this much,” He told the Luddite commander, displaying the well polished wooden hilt of the gun.  
“Very well. You may keep that much,” the commander accepted his desires.  
The three of the remaining group made their way through Luddite territory, free ranging their way through the land. eventually , they reached the edge of Luddite territory, where their capital city on the Western side of the MIssissippi resided. Unfortunately, in the half month of their time in Luddite territory, Arturo had fallen sick. The disease was strange, possibly brought on by something the Luddites had been carrying, but were less affected by, having been exposed to it for two hundred years. There weren’t any other cases recorded by the Luddites, although they only had spoken word to carry stories, and those stories only went back about a hundred years. The shamans of their people couldn’t do much in the way of helping him, and they weren’t sure what could possibly be the cause of this. Arturo was left bedridden in St. Louis with the Luddites. David remembered that time being one of the scariest of his life. He was once again lost, and Gregory didn’t help, blaming his willingness to leave behind so many of their belongings. David decided the only way this problem could be soled would be for him to head across the river alone, out past the Luddite territory, and hope to find a way to cure his brother himself. He promised his brother before leaving he’d return, and told Gregory to use the medical expertice he had to try and find a way to cure his brother.  
David was allowed to cross the river unassisted by guards. The bridge was long, and the walk strangely lonely, as he looked off to the distance, and up and down the river. Thinking back with each step ,this would be the first time he’d actually be all alone. Arturo would still be waiting for him to return like he used to back at McCarren, but the wasn’t Grover, or a second Follower Guard, or his father, or mother, or anyone. And then it hit him, as he made it across the bridge. This was his first time all alone. David looked out at the sprawling world before him. Everything else was now behind him. He was a man on a mission, with all the training one could hope for, and youth unconquerable. David took a moment to let go of everything, and thought about who he was, and decided that now was the time to decide what truly was important to him. David traveled the wastes east of the Mississippi for many days; He maintained himself off the animals he hunted and the crops he harvested. He set up a small plot of land inside an old rickety shack, where he stored his food, should he need somewhere to hold up for a night and recooperate. It was there that he rebuilt his father’s gun, better than ever before. He lived by the weapon for a time, having made the bullets from scrap. It, along with a luddite club and his knife, were all he needed. He made himself new armor, and fought raiders who came harassing him at his homestead for a share of his food. Weeks went by, as he searched through old buildings and hospitals, trying to teach himself on medicine, buffing his survival skills and mastering his abilities with guns and melee weapons. One day, in an old hospital, David saw a funny little robot unlike any he’d seen before, entirely circular, propelling itself above the ground in an unexplainable manner with odd antennae sticking out from behind it, flying around the halls, making strange beeping noises. David followed this floating orb through the building, using his masterful stealth ability to remain undetected. The robot brought David to a strange second looking robot, shaped like a bulkier man, all black metal, sitting at a desk, looking like it might be powered off or something. The flying bot turned to face what David guessed to be its friend or something along those lines, and made more happy beeping sounds. The big black robot turned to look up at the bot, startling David, but not causing him to stir and make a noise. The active robot suddenly spoke in a voice that sounded very strangey human, but with a robotic monotone “Did you find anything in your search, EDNA?” They asked their companion. The bot let out a single long tone of saddened boop. “Shame. Well, no need to fret, EDNA. We can’t expect to find success down every avenue. It’s strange to have seen of the central united states hit, considering how low its population supposedly was, but nonetheless, much of what happened back then doesn’t make much sense,” The man began to monologue to his robot friend, as he rose from his seat turning to face the door. The two began to walk for the door, each footfall of the person sounding heavy from within his suit. David realized he’d seen armor like his before, from the battle of Helios One with some group called “The Brotherhood of Steel. He didn’t know a lot about the battle or this brotherhood, just what Grover told him about it, but he’d seen the armor they’d taken and rebranded as NCR, and this had to be the same. The man was coming closer as he continued his speech, “Back before the war, man used to be obsessed with any number of fallacies. For over a hundred years before the bombs fell, all of America was obsessed with their vitamin intake, something that, due to regular dieting, never was an actual problem. But they took supplements regardless, to help aid in their intake, which only served to worsen issues with vitamin oversupplementash-” The large individual with the deep, robotic-like voice behind the armor turned the corner to find David waiting there for him, father’s gun in hand. The man stood silent for a minute, before raising his right hand confidently, Hello, there, young man. How might I be able to help you?” They asked in a tone no more friendly than before.  
David looked at the person waving at them, raising an eyebrow to them. He turned to this person’s robot partner, EDNA, staring down at him. “What… Are you two?”  
“I’m just another traveler, making a pit stop for food.” He explained, waving his right hand through the air as while he explained, putting it to his side as he finished.  
David looked back to him, both eyebrows raised now. “I don’t believe you. You said you were looking for something here?”  
“Food. Same as everyone else. This is a hospital, and I have been rather hungry for two days, now. I thought I might find something in this old world hospital. Might I ask what you are doing here? Its rare to see a symbol representative of an NCR soldier so far out east.” David was confused by what he was talking about until he remembered the hat on his head. He reached up to his head with one hand, leaving the other pointing a gun in the man’s face, touched the brim of his hat. He then pulled it off, looking down at the worn, old ranger’s hat Grover had given him. David had been wearing it for so long, he’d sometimes forget it was there, mistaking it for the eyes of Grover, still watching his back, and casting shade from the sun upon him. At the front was the large emblem of the Ranger corps.  
“Oh, right. Guess I forgot I had it on.” David put it back on. “Hey, wait a second, how do you know about the NCR? Their territories hundreds of miles back through the LUddites and the Legion.”  
“I’ve been there a few times myself. Well, maybe more than a few. But I’m not too well liked by the NCR. How did you come to be in possession of a hat symbolic of such a great power in the waste, and more importantly, that power’s greatest weapon, the Ranger?”  
David licked the back of his teeth nervously, and then decided to lower his gun. “I got it from a… Friend. A former ranger. Was, um… I was his apprentice, in a sense. Said he saw something in me. Used to, uhh… Used to tell I’d be a ranger myself, someday,” David explained, slipping in a little brag.  
“Sounds like a good man. How long ago was it that you were with him?”  
“Um. He, uh… Died, over a year ago.”  
“Hmm. I’m sorry to hear that. Was it at the battle for Hoover Dam?”  
David was caught off guard. This man knew more than he was expecting. “Y-yeah. HOw did you… know about the battle? Are… You coming from the West, too?”  
“Actually, I was heading back from the capitol wasteland to the New Vegas. After I was done with collecting information on the latest happenings in the Capitol, I caught word of the battle, and decided that now would be the best time to return there, wanting to be present for whenever Caesar’s Legion and the NCR go at it, again.”  
David was surprised by all the information he’d rambled off. Since the first battle, he’d known Caesar’s army was still a threat, but he never thought about how there was to be another conflict. He was too engulfed in his own problems. It made him feel guilt over leaving the NCR when they could use a capable soldier like himself. “Oh… So… What were you talking about before, just now? About… Vitamins?”  
“It’s an old world concern. It’s not a problem you’d have to worry about if you just keep eating a mutfruit every once in awhile. It’s been mutated into a super fruit, versatile enough to survive anywhere.”  
“Oh. So… What are you? And the robot, too. I mean, I’m assuming you’re a man under that armor, but… What’s the armor all about? It looks like the kind the heavy soldiers back at McCarran would wear. Are you, like… I think they’re called the Brotherhood of Steel? Are you, like, a doctor? Is that why you really came here?”  
The man stood there in silence for a moment. “Young man,” He began very slowly, “How much do you know about the Brotherhood of Steel?”  
“Umm… I’m guessing even moreso that you’re one of them, now.”  
THe large man in heavy mechanical armor stood like a statue. It could have been that he’d died there for how quiet he went, and the power armor was the only thing keeping him standing upright, now. David began to glance about, before continuing to speak, “Look, mister, I only ask because… I need some help.”  
The head of the armor suddenly moved once more to look back to David after trading away from him. “I’m sorry, young man, but whatever it is, I don’t think I can be of any help. NOt if you’re looking for a doctor.”  
“I’m not realy looking for a doctor. Look, what I really need right now is some help. I mean, if you were a doctor, that’d be great, but… I’ve got a dire situation that could go from bad to worse at any time.” David lowered his head, “It might’ve already come to the worst. Oh, god, why did I leave.” David wrapped his arms around him.  
The man stared at David. “Look, son, I’m sure whatever is wrong, it can’t be your fault. There are things in this world beyond any of our control.”  
“Like… LIke Gods?”  
“Hm… It’s quite rare to hear talk of god in the wastes. I only know of one group that still holds to old world religion. I know more people who would find themselves worshipping a deactivated nuclear warhead than something without a corporeal form, nowadays.”  
David raised his head to the man, “Why would anyone worship something like one of the bombs that killed millions?”  
“It’s hard to say. People look for answers everywhere. But to answer your previous question, no, I don’t personally believe there is a God, doing these things to us. I am a man of science. That’s part of being a member of the brotherhood.”  
David was confused by this man. He seemed to have a sense of honor that he rarely saw in the wastes. He’d seen it in that Luddite commander, but not paired with an amount of respect like this man before him. “Um… So, the Brotherhood are interested in science. Do you think the brotherhood could help me find a cure for a disease?”  
“Not anymore, I’m afraid,” The man appologized to David. “Maybe, if you had met the brotherhood a hundred years ago, they’d have had a willingness and ability to help you with such a problem, if you could prove yourself. I can bet, as well, a trained ranger might well beat any challenge they threw your way, but unfortunately, the Brotherhood in the East have lost interest in Science, instead helping man as soldiers of peace. I doubt you’d find medical expertise from them, and I’m assuming anything from the West will be thwarted by the Ludds.”  
“So, you think I’m screwed, then.” David ket thinking about losing the last thing he held in his life dear.  
“Don’t lose your way, son. Though there are those forces we can’t control, it’s by the strength of men that those problems are overcome.”  
David looked at this man. He once again thought of what his father told him. “Can… Can you help me?”  
The Brother of Steel looked to his companion bot, EDNA, who’d been observing this conversation silently, and then looked back to him, “Why do you ask? I’ve already told you, I’m no medical expert.”  
“I don’t mean for your Medical skills. I want your help to find my way. LIke you said. And if you’ll tell me what you were looking for, I can help you in return,” David offered, wanting this man as a companion of his own.  
The Soldier shook his head, “Young man, what I seek isn’t really a something. I’m a historian. A storyteller. I try and remain neutral to most matters.”  
“Look, I’m not trying to change the world. My older brother is sick, and I need help finding a cure. This isn’t a mission to save the world. In fact, if you help me, I promise, I won’t ever save the world. I’ll stay neutral. I just… You seem like you know a lot. And I think you could help me learn somethings. And in return, you’ll have one of the best snipers in thewaste at your backside.”  
The Storyteller took a long hard look at the desperate boy before him. And finally, he told him, “Alright. I’ll help if I can. Maybe I’ll get a story out of this.”  
And so, for a month, David, EDNA and the Storyteller traveled together East of the MIssissippi. The Storyteller shared stories of the Brotherhood of Steel, the history of the NCR, the people who helped form them both, and the people who’d shaped the waste to this day. And in return, David assisted his new companions, getting stronger everyday. The three of them debunked one group of raiders, and traveled as far South as the Gulf Commonwealth, learning about old world medicines and diseases. David became a master of Medicine, remembering each of Arturo’s symptoms and found a list of diseases he could be having, and prepared a cure for each of them. The Storyteller aided him how he could, and even taught him how to use POwer armor without the assistance of what he called “The inferior fusion cores.” He also taught him the purpose he served as a stroyteller, and of the many places his life had taken him.  
“The Commonwealth?” David asked to the Storyteller, once. Many times, the Storyteller had mentioned places like the Capital, the Saints Union, the many towns unified under the NCR, and about the Gulf Commonwealth, but one night, while talking about a man he’d met in the Capital wasteland, he mentioned how he’d come from a place called the COmmonwealth originally.  
Being stopped over this one location brought his endless rambling from topic to topic to a cease for a moment. “Ah, yes. Well. The Commonwealth is nothing too special. It’s a place like any other. Just… More dangerous. And far more lawless. It’s shown a lot of potential in the past, but the place stays caught up in it’s own petty fights among its people. If you’re looking for somewhere to stay among criminals, there’s no more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”  
David ended the conversation with an interested “Hm.”  
at the end of their month long journey, the three of them found themselves back in front of the bridge crossing into Luddite territory. David looked back across the bridge, hoping his brother was still alive and saveable. “I can’t follow you, you know? The LUddites aren’t fans of the BRotherhood. In fact, I might be the least welcome face they could see coming across this bridge.”  
“I remember. You’ll be waiting for me at my safehouse, right?”  
“Of course. I promise.”  
“Alright. Keep my stuff safe, then.”  
“Of course,” said the Storyteller. And with that and a final look back to his friend, David walked back across the Mississippi.  
It was an hour before David found himself back in the presence of his brother, Arturo. As David entered his room, he was relieved to see his brother wasn’t missing, at the least. He was looking near death, if anything, but alive for right now was something. Before he could get close to his brother, he was blocked by Gregory.  
“And some nerve you have,” He started, furious at David, “Running off, alone, for a month and a half, while I was left here to watch after YOUR sick, dying brother amongst uneducated savages!”  
Before he could continue, David grabbed Gregory by his dirty shirt collar and swung him around, pinning him to the wall of the old apartment building. “Shut up. I went out there to save my brother, the people here did what they could to save my brother, and you did nothing in the end to help him, so don’t you dare talk to me about what I did wrong.” David had no patience for stuck up assholes at the moment. He’d learned that from Grover. David suddenly thought about how long he’d been away and threw in an extra depressed, “I didn’t want to leave,” before snapping back to what he was doing. He let Gregory go, instructing him, “Wait here for now.”  
David turned to his brother, lying in bed and walked over to him. He looked down at his sleeping body. “When was the last time he was conscious?” He asked to Gregory.  
Gregory was pinning himself to the wall, intimidated by David. “He was awake but yesterday. He sleeps most of the day, now. He’ll be up for maybe an hour or two.”  
“Got it. Thanks.” David removed from his back pocket a filled syringe. “Alright, big brother. I made this myself. The Luddites searched me, but I was worried they’d think it was prewar, so I hid it. NO worries, tho. This should hopefully fix you right up.” David pulled his brother’s forearm out from the blanket covering him, and exposed the under arm, where he flicked his inner elbow to find the vein. David raised the needle to his brother’s arm and looked down at what he was about to do. He looked up at the face of his brother. It was emotionless in its slumber. He looked back down to his brother’s arm. What if it kills him? The thought was unavoidable. What if he killed his brother, right now. David was scared of that more than anything else in this world at the moment. But David plunged forward, sinking the needle into his brother’s arm and injecting him with his own family remedy. And then, he began to wait.  
David sat at his brother’s side for six hours in silence, him not seeming to get better or worse in that time. Gregory had been given permission to leave, and did so, many hours ago. THe two of them were alone. “Y’know, Arturo,” David spoke to him in Spanish, “I think I finally know what’s important. I try and think about it all the time, y’know? I think the thought scares me even more than death. Losing what’s important to me. But I’ve been so unsure what’s important in life. I mean… There was always the obvious things, you, family… Grover. Grover was family. But that couldn’t be it. There had to be more worth fighting for. And I think I finally found something worth fighting for.” He said and reflected on the many experiences he’d had. “I think… I think the world is worth fighting for. I don’t know if I’m the person to do it, but… I’ve traveled so far. I’ve seen so many who were able to care for me… I think I want to show the world kindness in turn. Just… I can’t wait until you wake up. We’re going to leave here, finally. Just wake up.”  
Early in the morning, David found himself on the bridge heading out of Luddite territory. There wasn’t any fanfare from the Luddites. They were happy to be rid of them. He was leaving empty handed, in the presence of his brother, with the assistance of a crutch and his brother, and with Gregory. The three of them crossed back over the bridge and David led the three of them back to his safehouse, where upon entering, Gregory was caught by surprised to see a man in full power armor. “Wh-Who are you!?” He demanded to know.  
The man rose from the seat that creaked a sigh of relief to have the hefty armor off of it. “The name is a Brotherhood secret, but you may call me the Storyteller,” He told the scared man.   
“It’s good to see you, again, friend.” David told him with a joy suppressed by his tiredness.  
“Good to see you, too, one last time,” the man responded.  
David’s light smile wiped away to an expressionless face that felt to be trying to portray sadness. “What do you mean, last time?” He asked.  
“I think perhaps it would be best if you lied down,” The Storyteller informed him.  
David made his way to the loose mattress he placed on the ground of his rickety shack to use as a bed. “ALright, why… did you want me to…” David hadn’t slept in about two weeks, and upon lying on the mattress, fell into a deep sleep. In his sleep, he dreamed of a conversation with the Storyteller.  
“Are you leaving?” He asked him.  
“Yes,” He told him. “I have to head west,” He told him. “It’s about time for me to continue moving on,” He told him.  
“But… I don’t want to lose another person… You’ve become important to me…” He admitted to him.  
“I’m sorry. I wish I could take you in as a member of the Brotherhood,” He wished for him, “But I’m afraid this is where we must part. I’m happy to see your brother is doing better,” He told him. “I’m afraid this is goodbye. I wish I could have waited a while longer. I really do. BUt maybe it’s for the best that leave while you can’t stop me. I know how tenacious you can be when you’re awake.” He complimented him. “I do hope to see you, again, my friend,” He shared with him.  
David woke up to a dark shack, his eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness to see Arturo and Gregory were sleep themselves. There was no sight of EDNA the eyebot or the man who never took off his power armor in the cabin. David rose from his bed and walked to the door, opening and looking out. No sight of them. David closed the door and looked back around the cabin. Nearby the bed on which he’d slept was the table at which the Storyteller had sat when he’d walked in, where now sat Arturo, and on the table lied the fancy gun of his father’s he’d remade as his own. David walked over to the gun, lifting it up and looking down at his brother, and smiled. He’d come very far. David put the gun in the holster at his side.  
It was another hard three months of travel before David, Arturo and Gregory arrived by a trolley out of Nuka World in what they had been told would be what they were looking for. David looked out upon the the strangely green forest in front of him, and the city that rose from the overgrowth in the distance and said, “Hey, guys. Real quick, can we climb this parking structure,” He asked pointing the muzzle of an assault rifle to an old building nearby the exit of the trolley.  
“Why do you ask?” Arturo answered his question with a question.  
“Just. I want a better look. Real quick.”  
Arturo gave a quick shrug, “Alright. I don’t see why not.”  
The three of the made their way up the car ramps, looking out from each level upon the thickets of trees to their right, before they reached the top of the structure and were above the forest. It was from here that the three of them looked out across the land and could see not too far the American East coast. David looked out upon the ocean, and said, “We’re here.”


End file.
